Venezuela’s Supreme Court has ordered Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to assume the powers and duties of acting president following the removal of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States.
The ruling, announced late Saturday local time, said Maduro is in a “material and temporary impossibility to exercise his functions.”
Reading the court’s decision during a session broadcast on state television channel VTV, Justice Tania D’Amelio said Rodríguez would “assume and exercise, as acting president, all the powers, duties, and faculties inherent to the office of president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation.”
Venezuela’s constitution provides that in the event of a temporary or permanent absence of the president, the vice president shall assume presidential responsibilities.
