Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez has shared images on social media of her attending emergency meetings with a large group of officials.
Venuzuelans who know Rodriguez told The New York Times newspaper on Sunday that Delcy is deeply ambitious -- almost a Machiavellian figure -- who would be happy to take charge of the country now that Nicolas Maduro is locked up in an American prison.
Delcy and her brother Dr Jorge Rodriguez -- a psychiatrist who is currently speaker of Venuzuela's national assembly -- are the children of a socialist revolutionary who died of torture when he was being interrogated by the country's secret service in 1976 for the kidnapping of an American businessman. Jorge was 10 and Delcy 7 then.
Their mother instilled in them a deep sense of ambition, which bloomed under the Hugo Chavez regime. Before he became speaker, Jorge served briefly as vice president and then mayor of the capital Caracas for over a decade.
Mauro appointed Delcy as the country's first woman foreign minister before she moved to the vice presidency a couple of years ago.
Behind her are the portraits of the legendary revolutionary Simon Bolivar, left, Nicolas Maduro, centre, and Hugo Chavez, who led the socialist revolution in Venuzuela till his death from cancer in 2013. Photograph: Delcy Rodriguez via Instagram/Handout via Reuters
Photographs curated and Feature Presentation by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
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