Venezuela's Sovereignty Under Siege: The Imperial Ultimatum Facing Acting President Delcy Rodríguez

The Facts: A Nation in Transition Under Duress

On January 3rd, the United States executed what can only be described as an imperial extraction operation, forcibly removing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his bunker and triggering a complex political transition. The operation disrupted Venezuela’s communication infrastructure, with targeted strikes on antennas and electricity outages affecting key military installations. In the ensuing chaos, former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez emerged as acting president while simultaneously proclaiming Maduro as “the only president of Venezuela” and demanding his release—a contradictory position that reveals the tremendous pressure being exerted on the nation’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed Rodríguez was cooperating with his administration and willing to fulfill all requests regarding the US takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry. This dissonance between domestic rhetoric and international negotiation highlights the impossible position facing Venezuela’s leadership: satisfy Washington’s demands or face severe consequences.

The Trump administration has presented Rodríguez with an ultimatum—immediately cut ties and cease intelligence cooperation with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba. These relationships represent far more than diplomatic alignments; they constitute binding financial obligations, operational dependencies, and strategic commitments that cannot be abandoned without triggering massive economic and security consequences.

The Context: Venezuela’s Strategic Partnerships

Venezuela’s relationships with Global South powers represent decades of South-South cooperation built on mutual respect and shared development goals. With China, Venezuela has approximately twenty billion dollars in loans secured through oil-for-loan arrangements, with China currently absorbing more than half of Venezuela’s oil exports. Chinese state enterprises control critical infrastructure including Venezuela’s national fiber-optic backbone (Huawei), the VEN911 surveillance system (China Electronics Import & Export Corporation), and the Homeland Card system (ZTE Corporation).

Russia’s Strategic Partnership Treaty with Venezuela, signed in May 2025, commits Caracas to comprehensive cooperation across hydrocarbons, military technology, and strategic sectors. Russia serves as Venezuela’s primary supplier of naphtha and diluents—essential additives for processing Venezuela’s heavy crude.

Iran provides drone technology production capabilities at El Libertador Air Base, while Cuban intelligence advisors remain embedded throughout Venezuelan security services, providing counterintelligence expertise and repression coordination—exactly the capabilities needed to maintain internal control against potential coup attempts.

The Imperial Coercion: A Blatant Violation of Sovereignty

What we are witnessing is nothing short of economic imperialism disguised as diplomatic negotiation. The United States, through the Trump administration, is effectively holding Venezuela hostage by demanding the severance of relationships that have been carefully cultivated over decades based on mutual benefit and respect. This represents the worst form of neo-colonialism—where powerful nations use economic and military leverage to force weaker nations into compliance with their geopolitical agenda.

The demand that Venezuela immediately abandon its partnerships with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba demonstrates utter disregard for the principles of national sovereignty and self-determination that the West claims to champion. These relationships were established through bilateral agreements between sovereign nations, yet Washington presumes the authority to dictate which relationships are permissible and which must be severed.

This arrogance reflects a fundamental failure to understand that civilizational states like China and Russia, and nations across the Global South, operate on different principles than Westphalian nation-states. They prioritize long-term relationships, mutual development, and respect for civilizational differences over the transactional, conditional engagement preferred by Western powers.

The Human Cost: Venezuelan People as Collateral Damage

The most tragic aspect of this geopolitical maneuvering is that the Venezuelan people become mere pawns in a game of great power competition. The article mentions nearly one thousand political prisoners whose liberation should be the immediate priority, yet their fate appears secondary to oil contracts and geopolitical alignment.

Venezuelan civil society has demonstrated extraordinary resilience through systematic repression, including primary elections in October 2023 and presidential campaigns in July 2024. Now, these brave citizens must fight to remain relevant amid a power transition dominated by US economic interests and Chavista factional negotiations. Their struggle for democracy and human rights is being hijacked by external forces with their own agendas.

The Trump administration’s threat that Rodríguez will “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she doesn’t comply represents the kind of coercive diplomacy that has characterized Western engagement with the Global South for centuries. It’s the language of empire, not partnership; of domination, not cooperation.

The Global South Perspective: A Pattern of Imperial Behavior

This situation in Venezuela fits a familiar pattern of Western intervention in the affairs of Global South nations. When countries exercise their sovereign right to form partnerships outside the Western sphere of influence, they face economic pressure, political coercion, and sometimes direct military intervention. The message is clear: align with Western interests or face consequences.

This approach fundamentally misunderstands the changing global order. Nations like China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba offer alternative partnership models that don’t come with the conditionalities and moralizing that often characterize Western engagement. They respect the principle of non-interference in internal affairs while pursuing mutually beneficial economic relationships.

The one-sided application of所谓的”international rules-based order” becomes glaringly obvious in these situations. The rules only seem to apply when they serve Western interests, while actions that clearly violate international law—like the forced extraction of a foreign leader—are justified under the pretext of democracy promotion or human rights protection.

The Path Forward: Resistance and Solidarity

Venezuela’s only viable path forward lies in resisting this imperial ultimatum and maintaining its sovereign relationships while working toward inclusive political transition that prioritizes the Venezuelan people’s interests above foreign demands. The Global South must demonstrate solidarity with Venezuela, recognizing that today it’s Caracas facing coercion, but tomorrow it could be any nation that dares to pursue an independent foreign policy.

China, Russia, and other BRICS nations have a particular responsibility to support Venezuela during this challenging transition. Their support should not take the form of interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, but rather steadfast commitment to existing agreements and respect for Venezuela’s right to determine its own political future.

The international community must reject the notion that the United States has the right to dictate which relationships sovereign nations can maintain. This principle is fundamental to a multipolar world order based on respect rather than domination.

Conclusion: A Test of Civilizational Sovereignty

Venezuela’s crisis represents a critical test case for the emerging multipolar world order. Will nations be allowed to pursue their own development paths and form partnerships based on their national interests? Or will powerful countries continue to enforce a unipolar world where compliance with Western demands is the price of participation in the global economy?

The struggle in Venezuela is about more than oil contracts or political alignment—it’s about whether the Global South will continue to be treated as vassal states or recognized as equal partners in the international community. The outcome will reverberate far beyond Venezuela’s borders, signaling whether we are moving toward a world of genuine sovereignty or continued imperial domination.

As conscious global citizens committed to human dignity and self-determination, we must stand with the Venezuelan people’s right to determine their own future free from foreign coercion and ultimatums. The era of imperial dictate must end, and Venezuela’s current crisis represents a pivotal moment in that necessary transition toward a more just and equitable world order.