MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
OK. As we just heard, deposed President Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody, sitting in a New York jail, but the rest of his repressive government remains in power back at home. Maduro's former vice president has been sworn in as the country's interim leader. Two powerful ministers who run the intelligence services and the military are firmly in command. It's unclear how much will change under this new, very much same as the old leadership. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports from Bogotá, Colombia.
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CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Under a steady rain, Kelly Diana Matasadeño rushes out of the Venezuelan embassy in Bogotá. Like the nearly 3 million migrants now living in Colombia, she's eager to go home and had a quick message for President Trump.
KELLY DIANA MATASADEÑO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Thank you and go ahead and do whatever you have to do," she said. But she added...
MATASADEÑO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "They have to get rid of the regime," she says, "if we are all going to be able to go back home."
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KAHN: That doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. On the ground this week, armed paramilitary gangs, or colectivos, as well as uniformed officers were out in full force on Caracas streets.
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DIOSDADO CABELLO: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Spanish).
CABELLO: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Spanish).
KAHN: Longtime Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who heads the police and feared security forces, has been joining the patrols and posting multiple videos like this one since the U.S. attack. Flanked in heavily armed forces and fatigues, the group alternates shouting, loyalty forever and Cabello's trademark slogan, to doubt is treason. He's a staunch defender of the regime and a frequent participant in pro-government rallies like this one yesterday.
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CABELLO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "They kidnapped Nicolás and thought the revolution would fall, but they don't know us," he told the crowd.
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CABELLO: (Speaking Spanish).
(APPLAUSE)
KAHN: "Nicolás, we will get you back," he said, to great applause. "And we raise our voices against American imperialism," he added. Cabello has been a key enforcer of the regime and is named in the indictment charging Maduro and his wife with drug trafficking. He denies the charges. His key ally and powerful defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, remains in his post, too. Padrino has also been under U.S. sanctions. He refutes any wrongdoing, too. And both men remained staunchly by interim President Delcy Rodríguez's side.
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ACTING PRESIDENT DELCY RODRÍGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: Like at this televised cabinet meeting after she was sworn in, pointing to both men - Venezuela's high command - in a demonstration of continuity. Her rise through the ranks of Venezuela's hardline leftist core has been steady and pragmatic says Francisco Rodriguez, an economist at the University of Denver. She took over running much of the oil industry and the economy, he says, after corruption scandals and mismanagement nearly tanked the country a decade ago.
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ: Things have improved under her watch, definitely.
KAHN: She is known as a pragmatist who gets things done, he says. She understood the government had to foster better relations with the business community, oil executives and Wall Street despite their vast ideological differences.
RODRIGUEZ: And in that sense, she was very different from other economics ministers who had had a different view in which the private sector didn't matter.
KAHN: But now, having to manage the hardliners still in power while also appeasing Trump will be her biggest challenge, says Juan Gonzalez, President Biden's former National Security Council advisor.
JUAN GONZALEZ: What is the least that she can give to Trump while making him happy, so that she is not in this position where she's viewed as giving away all of Venezuela's resources to the United States.
KAHN: She's already confronted that challenge after Trump threatened her with a fate worse than Maduro's if she didn't fall in line. To that, she responded...
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RODRÍGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "To those who threaten me, my destiny is not determined by them, but by God."
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Bogotá, Colombia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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