Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president in a parliamentary session that began with demands for the release of ousted leader Nicolás Maduro from US custody.
Rodríguez, who is the vice president since 2018, said she was pained by what she called the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were seized by US forces in an overnight raid.
In a dramatic scene inside a New York court room two hours earlier, Maduro had insisted he was still president of Venezuela as he pleaded not guilty to four charges of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Meanwhile the US faced sharp criticism at the UN, but the US ambassador responded that the largest energy reserves in the world could not be left in the hands of an illegitimate leader, a fugitive from justice.
Before the court appearance, the UN Security Council held an emergency session to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
The ambassador for Venezuela, Samuel Moncada, said his country had been the target of an illegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification.
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, justified the attack by describing Maduro as an illegitimate so-called president.
Waltz added that the US had carried out a surgical law enforcement operation to apprehend Maduro, whom he also referred to as a fugitive from justice.
Maduro has been accused of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
During Monday afternoon’s court appearance, a member of the public began to yell in Spanish at Maduro that he would pay for what he had done.
Maduro turned to him and replied that he was a “kidnapped president and a prisoner of war before being escorted out in shackles behind his wife through the back court door.
