Delcy Rodríguez is sworn in but the clock is ticking on her leadership of Venezuela

Hours after US forces captured Nicolás Maduro, the US secretary of state said he had spoken to Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s vice-president. Marco Rubio claimed she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again”.

But later that day Rodríguez appeared on television and denounced the US actions as “barbaric” and “an atrocity that violates international law”. She insisted that Maduro was the only president of Venezuela.

Twenty-four hours after that, following her first cabinet meeting, Rodríguez signalled a more conciliatory approach, appealing to Donald Trump for “balanced and respectful” relations based on “sovereign equality and non-interference”.

But, in an interview with the Atlantic, Trump turned up the heat: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” he said.

On Monday Rodríguez was formally sworn in as president, with the backing of Venezuela’s supreme court and armed forces. But beneath the surface there are deep rivalries between her camp and the powerful interior and defence ministers.

And there are doubts about whether Rodríguez can successfully serve these radically different – and on occasions erratic – interests.

“There is just an inherent contradiction there and even if she is very smart and skilful, it’s hard to see how she is going to be able to pull it off,” said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, a US research institute in Washington.

“She has to tread a very fine line to demonstrate she isn’t selling out to the United States, while offering a certain level of compliance with what Donald Trump and Marco Rubio want,” said Dr Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House. “Her hold on power is tenuous, she has only been anointed by Donald Trump.”

Under Maduro, 56-year old Rodríguez ascended the political ladder to become one of the most powerful figures in the country as vice-president and minister for finance and oil. She has shown herself to be a savvy operator as she has nurtured relations with international investors and diplomats.

“Oil companies and hedge fund managers that have dealt with her think highly of her as she’s pragmatic and willing to negotiate,” said Sabatini. She has fought hyperinflation with a market-friendly approach bringing a degree of stability to the economy.

Rodríguez’s father was a Marxist guerrilla fighter involved in the kidnap of an American businessman in the 1970s. He was tortured and died in police custody.

Her brother, Jorge, is a powerful figure in his own right. He was a close adviser to Maduro and is president of the national assembly.

In the ongoing standoff between the US and Venezuela and as it became clear that Washington was seeking some form of regime change in Caracas, the Rodríguez siblings have played an important role. In October the Miami Herald reported that a group of senior Venezuelan politicians, led by Delcy Rodríguez and her brother, were using intermediaries in Qatar to promote themselves to the US as acceptable alternatives to the Maduro regime. Ultimately, though, the proposal was rejected by Washington as it was seen as a way of the regime trying to preserve itself with its criminal elements intact.

In the months ahead, Rodríguez faces a formidable challenge dealing with the hardliners and ideologues on her own side, while placating Trump and Rubio’s demands to open up the oil sector to American companies.

"This is a country that has been utterly destroyed in all senses after 25 years of decay,” said Shifter. “It’s a completely criminal economy.”

Added to this is the paranoia and mistrust at the top of the Venezuelan government, which knows that the CIA had a top source within the administration who worked with the US for months to plan the operation, enabling US troops to precisely know where the president and his wife were spending the night.

And if Washington doesn’t like what it sees happening in Caracas, it has left open the possibility of further military strikes.

Photograph by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo