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Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang described robots as “AI immigrants” on Tuesday, arguing they could solve a global labor shortage that is hampering manufacturing.Addressing concerns about machines replacing human workers, the leader of the world’s dominant AI chip company took the opposite stance.”Having robots will create jobs,” Huang told 200 journalists and analysts during a 90-minute session at a Las Vegas hotel on the sidelines of the CES technology show.”We need more AI immigrants to help us on manufacturing floors and do work that maybe we’ve decided not to do anymore,” said Huang, whose off-the-cuff remarks have become a popular CES tradition.The gathering runs through Friday, with some 130,000 attendees.Like every year, robots are a major presence at CES, with companies hoping they will break into the mainstream as useful devices instead of novelties.A “robotics revolution” will compensate for labor losses from aging populations and demographic decline while boosting the economy, Huang argued.”When the economy grows, we hire more people,” he said, sporting his signature black leather jacket.Huang, who leads the world’s most valuable company at roughly $3.5 trillion, estimated the worker shortage reaches “tens of millions,” not thousands, due to demographic shifts.His comments align with other Silicon Valley leaders, particularly Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, who frequently cite population decline and workforce aging as reasons to embrace automation.Nvidia is investing heavily in providing the foundational software that can make robots work across multiple industries, including manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.

Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez insisted Tuesday no foreign power was governing her country, even as US President Donald Trump announced Caracas will be swiftly turning over millions of barrels of oil to the United States.Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas, Rodriguez said: “The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else.””There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”Trump insists Washington is now “in charge” of the Caribbean country but has said he is prepared to work with Rodriguez — provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.The US leader was startlingly direct about his intent regarding the South American country’s reserves, announcing on his Truth Social platform late Tuesday that Rodriguez “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.”This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me” as president, Trump said, adding that he has tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with “immediately” executing the plan.- No surrender -Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro’s capture.”We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up,” she declared, paying tribute to the “martyrs” of the US attacks.She said the country is holding seven days of mourning for those killed.In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela’s military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.Top ally Havana separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, many of whom were members of Maduro’s security detail.Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of “dozens” of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.- ‘Trump, murderer’ -Thousands of supporters of the presidential couple, including powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, marched through Caracas demanding their release.Fear of state repression has made it so the unpopular Maduro’s many detractors loathe to celebrate his downfall.Maduro and Flores appeared in court Monday in New York, where they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called on the United States to ensure they receive a fair trial.- Interim president’s challenges -Rodriguez has sought to project unity with Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, two hardliners seen as the main powerbrokers in the Maduro administration.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, sidelined by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 16 journalists and media workers were detained in Venezuela on Monday, according to a journalists’ union.All were later released.Trump has warned that Rodriguez will pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Maduro was a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and claimed that Rodriguez’s administration was “closing up” a torture chamber in Caracas.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent — which could happen after six months — elections must then be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News she was confident the opposition, widely seen as the real victors of 2024 elections, would win “over 90 percent of the votes.”

The self-described “animal” behind a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor admitted to the crimes in a video made after the spree but gave no motive, authorities said Tuesday.Gunman Claudio Neves Valente killed two people and wounded nine at the Ivy League school before also killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with whom he had previously studied, two days later.The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that while searching a storage unit to where Neves Valente apparently fled and later killed himself, they found a video of him admitting to the shootings.”I particularly like Trump’s shit, to have — have called me an animal, which is true. I am an animal and he is also, but uhm, I have no love — I have no hatred towards America,” he said according to the DOJ transcript translated from Portuguese.At the height of the days-long manhunt for the shooter, US President Donald Trump told reporters “hopefully, they’re going to catch this animal.”The gunman did not state a motive for the bloodshed but did complain about injuries sustained during the attacks — a shell casing he said struck him in the eye.Neves Valente carried out the college mass shooting on December 13 before heading to the home of renowned MIT professor Nuno Loureiro and killing him two days later.”Neves Valente admitted that he had been planning the Brown University shooting for a long time,” the DOJ said.”Although Neves Valente stated that Brown University was his intended target, based on initial review of the evidence collected, he did not provide a motive for targeting students at Brown University or the professor at MIT. (He) showed no remorse during the recordings.”The clips have not been publicly released.He blamed the two student victims from Brown — Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan — for their deaths, according to the statement.”The only objective was to leave more or less on my terms,” Neves Valente said in the transcript in which he apparently claims to have had multiple opportunities to execute the mass shooting but “always chickened out.”The Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing and there was not believed to be any threat to the public.

Reared in the Cuban exile community of Miami, Marco Rubio grew up dreaming of the downfall of Havana’s communists and, since entering politics, dedicated himself to battling Latin America’s leftists.With the US military’s overthrow and snatching of Venezuela’s firebrand president Nicolas Maduro, Rubio is savoring victory — but the outcome came only after compromises that again left many wondering where the old Rubio had gone.Rubio, the first Latino to serve as US secretary of state, will enjoy a unique role in charting the future of oil-rich Venezuela, with President Donald Trump saying Rubio and other aides will call the shots.Rubio had for years called Maduro illegitimate. Speaking as a senator in 2023, Rubio demanded further sanctions on Maduro’s Venezuela without free elections and vowed that “a democratic transition of power must be prioritized.”Now, Rubio said, it is “premature” to discuss elections. Trump has brushed aside democratic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose Nobel Peace Prize he coveted, and has sought to work with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, so long as she accedes to his demands including letting in US oil companies.”I don’t think this is the real Rubio. This is the realpolitik Rubio,” said Brett Bruen, a former US diplomat who served in Venezuela.”He sees an opportunity and is willing to forego some of his positions on human rights, democracy, the role of America as guarantor of global stability, in the pursuit of the prize of dethroning Maduro and, potentially, communist control of Cuba,” he said.Venezuela supplied about half of Cuba’s oil needs.Rubio, hours after Maduro’s fall, said: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”- ‘Little Marco’ to ‘normal’ Trump person -When Trump tapped Rubio as secretary of state, the nomination initially caused groans within Trump’s MAGA movement. The two had run bitterly against each other in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, with Trump infamously mocking his rival as “Little Marco,” who for his part suggested that the real estate tycoon had an unusually small penis.The rift appears long over. Rubio has loyally stood by Trump’s side and taken on the additional job of national security advisor, the first person to hold both key foreign policy jobs since Henry Kissinger.The dual-hat means Rubio spends much of his time at the White House with Trump rather than the constant globe-trotting of many previous secretaries of state.Rubio’s sullen face became a meme as he appeared to sink into the White House couch on February 28, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who relies on US support against Russia.”We thought of Rubio as the ‘normal’ person in the administration, the one we can talk to,” one diplomat from a US ally said on condition of anonymity.”But of course it’s clear that priority number one for him is Trump,” the diplomat said.- Never breaking with Trump -During his 14 years as senator, Rubio was generally well-liked by his colleagues, who unanimously confirmed him as secretary of state — a rarity in such polarized times.He has since gained MAGA stardom not for his diplomacy overseas but for zealously revoking visas of thousands of foreigners, including students who protested against Israel.Some Democrats have since said they regretted voting for Rubio.Asked about the criticism in a year-end news conference in which he took a marathon 46 questions, Rubio said that having a secretary of state who disagrees with the president is “stupid, really.”But Trump’s abrasive tone still is at odds with the old Rubio. The 54-year-old top American diplomat is the son of immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In his 2012 autobiography, “American Son,” Rubio wrote, “I can’t stand to hear immigrants described in terms more appropriate to a plague of locusts than human beings.”He came from a family that “felt a deep pain at the loss of their country,” he recalled. “They could never return to Cuba as long as Castro remained in power. That made them exiles in their hearts, and in mine.”

President Donald Trump is exploring how to take control of Greenland and using the US military is “always an option,” the White House said Tuesday, further upping tensions with NATO ally Denmark.Washington’s stark warning came despite Greenland and Denmark both calling for a speedy meeting with the United States to clear up “misunderstandings.”The US military intervention in Venezuela has reignited Trump’s designs on the autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic, which has untapped rare earth deposits and could be a vital player as melting polar ice opens up new shipping routes.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States,” to deter adversaries like Russia and China.”The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” she said in a statement to AFP.Trump’s renewed claims over self-governing Greenland have stoked concerns in Europe that the transatlantic alliance with the United States could be about to fracture.Earlier, Greenland and Denmark said they had asked to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly to discuss the issue.”It has so far not been possible,” Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media, “despite the fact that the Greenlandic and Danish governments have requested a meeting at the ministerial level throughout 2025.”Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should resolve “certain misunderstandings.”Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen again insisted that the island was not for sale and only Greenlanders should decide its future.His comments came after Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in saying that they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.””For this support, I wish to express my deepest gratitude,” Nielsen wrote on social media. Washington already has a military base in Greenland, which is home to some 57,000 people.Trump hinted on Sunday that a decision on Greenland may come “in about two months,” once the situation in Venezuela, where US forces seized President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, has stabilized.- ‘Broken record’ -The European leaders’ joint statement called Arctic security “critical” for international and transatlantic security.Denmark, including Greenland, was part of NATO, it added, urging a collective approach to security in the polar region. The statement was signed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.”Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the statement said.But Macron and Starmer both sought to play down the issue as they attended Ukraine peace talks in Paris alongside Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.”I cannot imagine a scenario in which the United States of America would be placed in a position to violate Danish sovereignty,” Macron said.Starmer said he had made his position “clear” in the joint statement — although he did not restate that position in front of the cameras.Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term.”It’s like a broken record,” Marc Jacobsen, a specialist in security, politics and diplomacy in the Arctic at the Royal Danish Defence College, told AFP.Trump has claimed that Denmark cannot ensure the security of Greenland, saying it had bought just one dog sled recently. But Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($14 billion) in the last year.burs-dk/bgs

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Nicolas Maduro of imitating his dancing, among other crimes, as he celebrated the capture of the Venezuelan leader in a freewheeling speech to Republican lawmakers.Trump’s comments come after a New York Times report that Maduro’s regular public dancing in defiance of US threats convinced White House officials that it was time to act.”He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit,” Trump told lawmakers at the Kennedy arts center in Washington — which was recently renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center by his handpicked board.”But he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people. He’s tortured. They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they’re closing up.” Trump did not give further details about the alleged torture chamber, or elaborate on his so-far vague plans for the United States to “run” oil-rich Venezuela following the fall of Maduro.Leftist Maduro regularly appeared on stage dancing to a techno remix of his mantra “No War, Yes Peace” as US forces massed in the Caribbean in late 2025. Trump is known for dancing to the disco song “Y.M.C.A.” at his rallies.But while Trump hailed the “brilliant” US special forces raid that seized Maduro and his wife on Saturday, most of the speech was about firing the starting gun on the crucial 2026 US midterms.The 79-year-old returned to the theme of his dancing, and other moves, as he ran through a list of his policy priorities ahead of November’s crucial election to decide who holds Congress.- ‘So unpresidential’ – While discussing his administration’s banning of transgender women from women’s and girls’ sports, Trump performed an exaggerated imitation of what he said was a trans weightlifter.”My wife hates when I do this,” Trump said. “She said, ‘it’s so unpresidential.'”Trump added that “she hates it when I dance,” adding: “Could you imagine FDR dancing?”President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was in office from 1933 until 1945, was paralyzed from the waist down by polio in 1921.Trump also referred to the fact that his speech was on the fifth anniversary of the US Capitol attack by supporters irate at what he still falsely calls his “rigged” election loss to Joe Biden in 2020.He was impeached for the second time over the riot — and warned Republicans that the same thing could happen if they do not win this year’s midterm elections.”You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win… I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” he said, referring to rival Democrats.Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 rioters on his first day back in office on January 20, 2025.With the parties of incumbent presidents often taking a beating in midterms, Trump urged Republicans to focus on issues like healthcare and the cost of living.Polls have shown US voters are still concerned about the affordability of basic goods, despite Trump’s claims that the economy is doing well.”I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public. Because we have the right policy,” Trump told the Republican lawmakers.

US forces killed 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel during their stunning raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, tolls published by Caracas and Havana showed Tuesday.In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela’s military said 23 of its service members died in Saturday’s attacks by the United States, which led to the ouster of Maduro as the country’s leader. Caracas has yet to give an official figure for civilian casualties.Cuba, which had already announced that 32 members of its armed forces and interior ministry security personnel assigned to duties in Caracas were killed in the raids, also listed its dead.They ranged in age from 26 to 67 and included two colonels and one lieutenant colonel.Many of the dead Cubans are believed to have been members of Maduro’s security detail, which was largely wiped out in the attacks, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a compound.They were later taken to New York, where they appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday called on the United States to ensure Maduro receives a “fair trial.”- Interim president’s challenges -Hours after their court appearance, Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.US President Donald Trump said he is willing to work with her, as long as she submits to his demands on providing US companies access to Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.Rodriguez faces a delicate balancing act in trying to respond to those demands while keeping Maduro loyalists on her side.She has sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro’s administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries that have patrolled the streets in the days since the deposed leader’s capture.In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday, a journalists’ union said.Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border.All were later released.- Opposition lashes out -Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, said in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.- ‘We will win’ -A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners. Trump on Tuesday called Maduro a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and whose government engaged in torture.”They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they are closing up,” he claimed.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent, elections must then be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News that “in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it.”She vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas”; “dismantle all these criminal structures” and “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home.”She also offered to give her Nobel prize — an award Trump has long publicly coveted — to the US president.Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since October 10.

The lawyer defending deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is a veteran trial attorney who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.Barry Pollack, 61, appeared beside Maduro during his arraignment in a New York courtroom on Monday on drug trafficking and other charges.Maduro pleaded not guilty and it will be up to Pollack to try to convince a federal jury to render that verdict when the case eventually goes to trial.The next hearing has been set for March 17.A graduate of Georgetown University law school, Pollack is a partner in Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, a boutique New York law firm, and a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.Law firm research guide Chambers USA describes him as a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries.”In 2024, Pollack secured the release of Assange from a British prison after negotiating a plea deal with the US Justice Department that saw the Australian plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act by unlawfully disclosing national defense material.In another high-profile case, Pollack obtained the acquittal of a former Enron accountant who was facing criminal fraud charges stemming from the collapse of the energy giant.Another prominent case involved a New York man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents when he was a teenager and spent 17 years in prison.Pollack managed to get the charges dismissed and secured his freedom.Pollack gave a hint of his defense strategy during Monday’s brief arraignment of Maduro before District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, questioning the “legality of his abduction” by the US military.

Nigeria’s air force will take the lead from the United States after Washington’s Christmas Day strikes on jihadists, making use of US reconnaissance flights to aid its own strikes, a Nigerian official told AFP Tuesday.On the evening of Christmas Day, the United States struck sites in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto state against what it said were targets linked to the Islamic State group.Though Nigeria remains open to further American strikes, the Americans’ primary role will now be providing intel, the source familiar with the new security arrangement with Washington said, asking for anonymity because of its sensitivity.Africa’s most populous country has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009, mostly concentrated in its northeast, while armed “bandit” gangs have taken hold across swathes of the country’s rural northwest and north-central regions.The strikes came after a diplomatic offensive starting in October in which President Donald Trump alleged that violence from armed groups in Nigeria amounted to “persecution” and “genocide” of Christians — accusations denied by Abuja and independent analysts.Days before the strikes, Nigeria’s information minister said the “spat” had been resolved, “culminating in a strengthened partnership between America and Nigeria”.For weeks ahead of the strikes, analysts had been tracking increased US reconnaissance flights over Nigeria.The recon flights have continued since.The New York Times, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, recently reported that the US strikes were a “one time event”.Though they came after Nigeria and the United States at least partially buried the hatchet, the strikes caused headaches in Abuja when Trump took unilateral credit for them. In response, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar went on a media offensive, insisting that they were part of a joint operation.Adding to the complications, Washington officials were largely unreachable until the days leading up to the strike, before finally calling their Nigerian counterparts with their plans, the source said.According to Abuja, the strikes targeted Islamic State militants, who were in the country to work with the Lakurawa jihadist group and “bandit” gangs.All three groups were targeted, presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala said. Both countries said there were an unspecified number of militants killed.A hotel manager in Offa, Kwara state, told AFP three of his staff were hospitalised after munitions debris fell on his building.Some researchers have recently linked some members of Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto state — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is active in neighbouring Niger near the Nigerian border.Other analysts have disputed those links.

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Tuesday got down to the business of running the country, under pressure from Washington to give access to Caracas’s oil while trying to keep supporters of ousted Nicolas Maduro on her side.Former deputy president Rodriguez, 56, was sworn in as acting leader Monday, as Maduro appeared in a New York court, where he pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism.”His wife, Cilia Flores, who was snatched with him by US special forces from a military base in Caracas on Saturday during a bombing raid, also pleaded not guilty.Rodriguez, whom US President Donald Trump has indicated he is willing to work with, faces a delicate balancing act.She has suggested that she will cooperate with Washington, which wants to tap Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.But she has also sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro’s administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries.Venezuela’s journalists’ union said Tuesday that 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday and later released. Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border and later released, it added.- Character questioned -Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro on Monday and further demonstrations were planned on Tuesday.On Monday, Rodriguez told the opening of parliament she was “in pain over the kidnapping of our heroes, the hostages in the United States,” referring to Maduro and Flores. The session turned into an impromptu rally for “Chavismo” — the anti-US, socialist policies of late firebrand leader Hugo Chavez and his anointed heir Maduro.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”The Nobel Peace Prize laureate vowed to return home “as soon as possible” from her current undisclosed location outside the country.Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda. So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.”Delcy had better be sleeping with one eye open right now because right behind her are two men who would be more than happy to cut her throat and take control themselves,” Brian Naranjo, a former US diplomat who was previously stationed in Venezuela, told AFP.Venezuelan political analyst Mariano de Alba agreed that the new government was “unstable,” but said that Chavismo had understood that “only through apparent cohesion can they keep themselves in power.”- ‘We will win’ -A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners. She has been sworn in for a 90-day interim term that can be extended for another three months by parliament.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent, elections must be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News that “in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it.”She vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas” and “dismantle all these criminal structures” and “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home.”She also offered to give her Nobel prize — an award Trump has long publicly coveted — to the US president.Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since October 10.