Venezuela denounces "cold-blooded" murder by Maduro's security team

Caracas.- The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) rejected this Sunday the capture of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, which it labeled as a "cowardly kidnapping" and stated, in a statement, that it occurred "after cold-bloodedly assassinating a large part" of the security team of the Chavista leader.

In the statement, read by the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, on a broadcast of the state-owned channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the Venezuelan high military command said it was "united, cohesive, in the face of imperial aggression", as it described the US attacks on Saturday in Caracas. In this regard, he affirmed that Nicolás Maduro is the constitutional president of the country and demanded his "prompt release" along with the first lady, Cilia Flores, who was also captured by the United States.

"It is President Nicolás Maduro who is the authentic and genuine constitutional leader of all Venezuelans," he reiterated.

However, the military recognized the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), which on Saturday night ordered that Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's Executive Vice President, assume as acting president of the country. Furthermore, he affirmed that the high command "fully" supports the external commotion decree declared the day before and that grants the State special powers to take measures in conflict situations. Likewise, he called on the population to resume their economic, labor, and also educational activities in the coming days.

"The Bolivarian Government will guarantee the governability of the country and our institution will continue to employ all its available capacities for military defense, the maintenance of internal order and the preservation of peace," he assured.

Padrino also ordered to "integrate the elements of national power" to "confront imperial aggression, forming a single combat block" to ensure the sovereignty of Venezuela.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted this Sunday that Washington will manage the "direction" in which Venezuela will move, and stated that he hopes the new Venezuelan government, now led by the vice president and acting president, "takes a different course than Maduro's". On Saturday, Rodríguez, also Minister of Hydrocarbons, led a meeting of the National Defense Council, with ministers and military chiefs, in which she reported that the decree of commotion would begin to be executed once the TSJ declared its constitutionality. The decree may approve powers such as, for example, mobilizing the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) throughout the territory, militarily and immediately taking over the infrastructure of public services, as well as the hydrocarbon industry and basic companies, to guarantee their "full operation", and activate "all citizen security plans". However, the text is not public and the scope of its measures is unknown. Maduro, for his part, spent his first night in the federal prison Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Venezuelan leader, formally accused in 2020 by the Southern District Attorney's Office of New York, which this Saturday made public a substitute accusation in that same court, will face federal court charges for narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and crimes related to automatic weapons