The U.S. military’s capture, arrest and extraction of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro still leaves the regime in place for now, according to an expert on the region.
President Donald Trump is due to speak later on Saturday, but U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro will face narco-terrorism charges after an indictment in New York.
“I will really underline here that it is very early. We don’t understand what the plan for a possible transition could be,” Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, told CNN. “But at the moment everything indicates that the base of the regime, everything that held together the Maduro government, continues to be in place.”
In particular, she noted that the defense minister and the interior affairs minister are hardliners and still appear to remain in power at the moment.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, considered an enforcer for Maduro, reportedly appeared on state television wearing a bulletproof vest and sounded defiant.
He claimed the government has everything under control, while calling on the military and police to maintain order.
According to Dickinson, the key questions in the immediate future are who has control over critical infrastructure what are the security conditions on the ground.
That will provide critical clues as to how the situation will unfold. But for now, Maduro’s top lieutenants are still in charge.
“So removing Maduro did not necessarily change the fundamental equation of control,” Dickinson said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
