Maduro’s Inner Circle Appears to Survive U.S. Strikes on Venezuela

The United States captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. But Mr. Maduro’s inner circle appeared on Saturday morning to have survived the U.S. strikes on the country, though it was not immediately clear who was in power.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, figured among the Venezuelan officials issuing pronouncements or making public appearances after U.S. strikes on targets in the country.

While reports circulated that Ms. Rodríguez was in Russia at the time of the attacks, Ms. Rodríguez is in Caracas, according to three people close to her. Russian state media also denied reports that she was in Moscow.

Other top Maduro allies who appeared to survive the attacks included Vladimir Padrino López, the defense minister and Venezuela’s top ranking military officer; and Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister and one of Mr. Maduro’s top enforcers.

The survival of these officials suggests that Venezuela’s government remains functioning, at least shakily, in the hours after Mr. Maduro and the first lady were seized and extracted from the country.

Mr. Trump also suggested that his administration would continue to target Venezuelan government officials if they side with Mr. Maduro. "If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said.

Speaking by telephone on state television, Ms. Rodríguez, the vice president, invoked what she described as Mr. Maduro’s “instructions,” and called on the people and the armed forces to defend Venezuela.

Ms. Rodríguez also asked Mr. Trump to provide proof that Mr. Maduro is alive and condemned the U.S. intervention as an act of “military aggression” that violated the country’s sovereignty.

Educated partly in France, Ms. Rodríguez spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul which had provided, before the U.S. military campaign targeting Mr. Maduro, a semblance of stability in Venezuela’s economy after a prolonged collapse.

Her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, another member of the inner circle who is the president of the National Assembly and Mr. Maduro’s chief political strategist, shared a statement on Telegram from Ms. Rodríguez calling the intervention a plot to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Separately, Mr. Cabello, the interior minister, appeared on state television and urged Venezuelans to support Mr. Maduro’s government. While allied with Mr. Maduro, Mr. Cabello is also viewed as an internal rival in Venezuela’s power structures.

Mr. Cabello, a retired military figure, is at the helm of Venezuela’s repression apparatus. As a hard-liner with a caustic political style, his public profile had been on the rise as the U.S. intensified its campaign against Venezuela in recent weeks.

The defense minister, Mr. Padrino López, also appeared on state television after the U.S. attacks, calling them an act of “criminal military aggression.” He is known as a survivor of political upheaval in Venezuela, holding his role for the last 11 years.