Trump administration announces new Supreme Court and new electoral council in Venezuela

The head of United States diplomacy, Marco Rubio, stated this Monday (9) that Venezuela will have new judges for the Supreme Court and a new electoral council by December.

"We are on schedule and, if everything continues as planned, we will have new Supreme Court magistrates sworn in by the middle of next month, in December. Soon after that, the new Electoral Council will be created. These two measures are essential," said Rubio.

Since the US captured Nicolás Maduro, the Caracas dictatorship has been led by Delcy Rodríguez, then Maduro's deputy, who started working with Washington. Under supervision, the regime has made overtures and signed agreements with Donald Trump's government, such as the oil pact that will give the US majority control of 65 billion Venezuelan barrels.

"I believe we are progressing well. We just need to monitor everything closely and ensure that these deadlines are met, because, as soon as the Electoral Council is constituted and these elements are established, the expectation is that the Presidency will be declared vacant", stated the American Secretary of State.

"This, in turn, will begin a six-month period for holding an election, on a date set by the legitimate Electoral Council that we hope to see constituted very soon. So there is a plan; we are moving forward with it, it is a priority for us and I believe it will be successful," he further said.

The argument that there was a vacancy in the Presidency after Maduro's capture was used by the opposition led by Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado and her party, Vente, in April. At the time, the party called for new elections, something that neither Caracas nor Washington agreed to.

The timeline indicated by Rubio shows the temporality with which the US works with Venezuela. With the new courts established in December and the six-month deadline provided for in the Constitution, it is inferred that Washington expects a Venezuelan election only from mid-2027.

In an interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes", Trump once again referred to the South American country as an American territory, as he had done several times before and after Maduro's capture. "We won [the war] in Venezuela and we've already taken billions and billions of dollars from there and we're going to take many billions more dollars. We get along very well, you can call it territory, you can call it whatever you want," Trump said.

The Trump administration has made it clear that the South American country it practically controls is not ready to hold elections. The president himself highlighted this in July, when he said Delcy was doing "a fantastic job," and again in September, shortly after the oil deal was announced.

Currently, the regime, which has gradually released political prisoners, still holds more than 300 people in this condition, according to the NGO Foro Penal, which monitors human rights violations by the Venezuelan dictatorship.