By MEGAN JANETSKY and ISABEL DEBRE

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her looming ally President Nicolás Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation.

Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.

She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military. In a televised address, Rodríguez gave no indication that she would cooperate with Trump, referring to his government as “extremists.”

“The only president of Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro,” Rodríguez said, surrounded by high-ranking civilian officials and military leaders. “What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law.”

At odds with Trump

Rodríguez, a 56-year-old lawyer and politician has had a lengthy career representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

Her rise to become interim leader of the South American country came as a surprise on Saturday morning, when Trump announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in communication with Rodríguez and that the Venezuelan leader was “gracious” and would work with the American government. Rubio said Rodríguez was someone the administration could work with, unlike Maduro.

In doing so, observers said the government was effectively turning its back on the opposition movement it maintained was the winner of Venezuela’s 2024 elections just weeks before.

On Sunday, Trump’s tone shifted as Rodríguez and other Venezuelan officials continued to rail against the Trump administration and assert that they were in control of the country.

“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said of Rodríguez in an interview with The Atlantic.

That same day, Rubio asserted that he didn’t see Rodríguez and her government as “legitimate” because he said the country never held free and fair elections.

Rise to interim president

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, the interim president and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have sterling leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who was arrested for his involvement in the kidnapping of American business owner William Niehous in 1976, and later died in police custody.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S., though the interim president did face U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first term for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

Rodríguez held a number of lower level positions under Chávez’s government, but gained prominence working under Maduro to the point of being seen as his successor. She served the economic minister, foreign affairs minister, petroleum minister and others help stabilize Venezuela’s endemically crisis-stricken economy after years of rampant inflation and turmoil.

Rodríguez developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change. The interim president also presided over an assembly promoted by Maduro in response to street protests in 2017 meant to neutralize the opposition-majority legislature.

She enjoys a close relationship with the military, which has long acted as the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, said Ronal Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Venezuela Observatory of Rosario University in Bogota, Colombia.

“She has a very particular relationship with power,” he said. “She has developed very strong ties with elements of the armed forces and has managed to establish lines of dialogue with them, largely on a transactional basis.”

Future in power

It’s unclear how long Rodríguez will hold power, or how closely she will work with the Trump administration.

Geoff Ramsey, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institute, said Rodríguez’s firm tone with the Trump administration may be an attempt to “save face.” Others have noted that Maduro’s capture required some level of collaboration within the Venezuelan government.

“She can’t exactly expect to score points with her revolutionary peers if she presents herself as a patsy for U.S. interests,” Ramsey said.

Venezuela’s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever the president becomes “permanently unavailable” to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or “abandonment” of duties as declared by the National Assembly.

That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro’s predecessor, Chavez, died of cancer in 2013. However, the loyalist Supreme Court, in its decision Saturday, cited another provision of the charter in declaring Maduro’s absence a “temporary” one.

In such a scenario, there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president, an unelected position, takes over for up to 90 days — a period that can be extended to six months with a vote of the National Assembly.

In handing temporary power to Rodríguez, the Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day time limit, leading some to speculate she could try to remain in power even longer as she seeks to unite the disparate factions of the ruling socialist party while shielding it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.

——

Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report.

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Redshirt freshman Nick Janowski already has showcased a variety of talents this season for the St. Thomas men’s basketball team.

Sunday afternoon at Anderson Arena, he debuted his Nolan Minessale impression.

With Minessale, among the nation’s leading scorers at 22.3 points per game, severely limited due to an ankle injury, the 6-foot-4 Janowski exploded for 31 points and added a team-high seven rebounds as the Tommies (12-4) opened Summit League play with a gritty 92-88 over the Denver Pioneers before an announced crowd of 2,541.

“I honestly didn’t realize how bad Nolan’s ankle was,” Janowski said. “When I realized it was that bad I kind of got in that mode where I know every shot’s going in and I’m as confident as anyone in the world because of my work ethic. I think my teammates just found me in the right spots and allowed me to get to my spots to play free and play the way that I do.”

St. Thomas had a lot of contributors, with Ben Oosterbaan (16 points), Austin Herro (15) and Isaiah Johnson-Arigu (12) all reaching double figures. But Janowski, who came into the game averaging 14.4 points per game, proved to be the player the Tommies could lean on, just as Minessale has been all season.

“The job Nick did today was incredible,” said Tommies head coach Johnny Tauer. “Not just the 31 points and 7 rebounds, but he just continues to grow as a player. He’s as competitive as anyone you’ll meet.”

St. Thomas entered the game knowing Minessale’s injury would probably have an impact on how the game played out.

“Coach (Mike) Maker talked to myself and Carter (Bjerke) before the game and just gave us a little rundown,” Janowski said. “I know Nolan, and he’s also as competitive as anyone, and I love him to death for that. So I just figured he would be fine. But it was very obvious out there that there was something wrong, because he wasn’t doing his normal Nolan stuff. So halfway through the first half, when he didn’t have 20 points, that’s when I realized it.”

St. Thomas sophomore guard Nolan Minessale dives for the ball in the Tommies’ win against Denver on Sunday. (Photo courtesy Maddie Kranz)

Minessale was held scoreless in the first half, missing seven shots and going 0-for-3 from the free-throw line.

Asked if Minessale got hurt in practice, Tauer said, “Probably. I don’t honestly know.”

Tauer said Minessale practiced on Saturday, so he knew he was going to give it a shot on Sunday.

Minessale, who played 13-plus minutes in the first half, played less than 10 in the second half and was not on the court down the stretch, with the game on the line.

“You don’t want to aggravate it anymore,” Tauer said, “and other guys were playing well. That, to me, is what makes a team.”

Tauer said the team practiced the last couple of days before the game knowing Minessale likely would be limited.

“It certainly changes things,” Tauer said, “but our offense is sort of its own organism. Some of it is unstructured, and some of what Nolan is doing is an anomaly. Part of what Nick’s doing is remarkable — how he finds ways to score and how he’s efficient.”

The same could be said of Janowski on Sunday. He played a team-high 36 minutes, 29 seconds, and scored in a variety of ways, including three 3s, while making 12 of 22 shots.

The Tommies opened league play as the preseason favorite, and the Pioneers (8-9, 1-1), led by former Minnesota State Moorhead head coach Tim Bergstraser, did all they could to get the team’s quest for an NCAA berth off on the wrong foot.

St. Thomas scored the first five points of the game, but then went cold. They missed 10 of their first 13 shots to fall behind 11-8.

Back-to-back 3s by Oosterbaan and Herro gave the hosts a 14-11 lead. The Tommies’ lead grew to 21-13 after a 3 by Johnson-Arigu.

A 16-8 run by the Pioneers cut St. Thomas’ lead to 1 at 30-29 with five minutes to play in the half. Led by five points from Janowski, the Tommies outscored the Pioneers 13-8 the rest of the way to take a 43-37 lead into the locker room.

The game remained tight throughout the second half. St. Thomas trailed 72-68 with 10 minutes to play. A Herro 3 put them up 73-72. Janowski then hit a pair of free throws and followed with a 3-point play to give the Tommies a 78-74 lead.

Johnson-Arigu helped secured the victory when he grabbed an offensive rebound with 23 seconds to play and St. Thomas up 88-85. He made one of two free throws for the final margin of victory.

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The Vikings’ season finale against archrival Green Bay lacked postseason ramifications and, therefore, garnered none of the rabid anticipation this kind of scheduling generally calls for. Minnesota is going nowhere, and the Packers weren’t trying (that hard) to win.

But this was a big game for the Vikings because it was a stress test for the current roster. Had J.J. McCarthy returned from an injury to his throwing hand and played well, and the defense continued its late renaissance, management could have reasonably gone into next season still believing this is, by and large, a playoff team.

But he didn’t, and they can’t.

The Vikings won a yawner, 16-3, but it wasn’t exactly inspiring — especially against a Packers team already locked into the NFC’s seventh playoff seed and starting its third-string quarterback and several practice-squad players.

This game was a big one because going out with a 9-8 record after a roster that refused to quit finished the season with five straight victories might have been a good omen had McCarthy been solid. In that case, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell might have been looking at a roster that can win on the strength of its defense in 2027.

However, McCarthy didn’t play well. He didn’t throw an interception — but didn’t throw a touchdown pass either — before leaving the game in the third quarter after apparently aggravating his injury, a hairline fracture in the right hand.

The Vikings already knew they must bring in a veteran quarterback this spring to compete for the starting job next summer; now they know they have to sign a veteran quarterback they expect to start because McCarthy just hasn’t shown the team that he’s the guy. He just hasn’t.

McCarthy confirmed this season that he is a talented player, but the Vikings knew that when they made him the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft. What they didn’t know is whether McCarthy would confirm that he has the head and temperament to be this team’s starting quarterback, like, right now.

That didn’t happen and the Vikings will go into the offseason with two quarterbacks — McCarthy and former Gopher Max Brosmer — who are more suited to a backup role than a starting one.

O’Connell was vocal about hoping to see McCarthy play in one last game before the offseason, and the quarterback agreed to give it a try after going through an entire practice on Friday. But unless O’Connell saw some promising minutia that only a former NFL quarterback and offense coordinator can see, McCarthy did nothing to inspire his coach’s confidence.

McCarthy, in fact, was flagged for taunting on the game’s second play, earning a 15-yard penalty that sabotaged a potential touchdown drive.

After he missed seven games because of three different injuries, and playing badly in some lopsided losses, one might expect McCarthy to keep his head down and concentrate on not being terrible. Instead, he got so pumped by running six yards before being knocked out of bounds by a defensive back that he couldn’t contain his competitive fire.

What are we doing here?

It’s been written in this space that this season shouldn’t be a referendum on McCarthy, but that penalty was so astonishingly silly that it’s hard not to change course. He completed 57.6 of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

McCarthy’s ability to start was the biggest question at the season’s onset and it’s still — at best — a question as the Vikings limp into the offseason.

The team could have been bounding into a fairly sanguine future, but with McCarthy doing more to hurt this case than help it, and defensive coordinator Brian Flores likely to field interest from teams looking for a head coach this offseason, the Vikings could decide to draft another quarterback in April.

The only certainty for this team right now is that they can’t pencil McCarthy in as the starting quarterback in 2026, and it might alter the course of this team’s plans to end its 59-year Super Bowl drought.

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There was a time roughly a month ago when it felt like the Vikings might not win another game this season. They had just been shutout by the Seattle Seahawks on the road. They boasted a 4-8 record at the time. They looked very much like a group with no direction.

It was at that moment that head coach Kevin O’Connell issued a challenge to his players in the locker room. He asked them to focus on simply trying to go 1-0 each week, even if he knew the playoffs were virtually an impossibility at that point.

As cliche as the request might have been, the Vikings responded by winning every game the rest of the way, capping a frustrating campaign with a 16-3 win over the Green Bay Packers to finish with a 9-8 record.

It wasn’t exactly an impressive win for the Vikings considering the Packers rested a bulk of their starters with their position in the playoffs already set in stone. That said, the Vikings left very little doubt, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back.

Though the offense didn’t necessarily provide anything to write home about — quarterback J.J. McCarthy completed 14 of 23 passes for 182 yards before leaving the game early with a right hand injury — the defense dominated against mostly backups on the other end.

The highlight of the game was undoubtedly veteran fullback C.J. Ham scoring a touchdown in what could be the final game of his career. He’s hinted that he will consider retirement once this season comes to an end.

Some other notable anecdotes included star receiver Justin Jefferson eclipsing 1,000 yards, edge rusher Dallas Turner finishing with a pair of sacks, and veteran safety Harrison Smith getting a standing ovation in what could be the final game of his career.

The game itself didn’t feature much action as the Vikings scored their points via a touchdown run by Ham and a trio of field goals from star kicker Will Reichard. That was more than enough run support as the Packers struggled to generate any sort of offense with reserve quarterback Clayton Tune completing 6 of 11 passes for a mere 34 yards.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Smith and Ham both got their flowers with the big screen essentially alternating back and forth while the home crowd gave each of them respective curtain calls.

It was a reminder that while the game itself was rather meaningless on the surface, it still carried a lot of weight for the Vikings in the present and in the future.

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