Debbie Wasserman Schultz wants opposition leaders installed to replace Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz says she’s happy to see Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in custody for his crimes. But she expressed anger and alarm that President Donald Trump offered no plan to install democratically elected leaders there.

“I am really glad that Maduro has been arrested, that he’s going to be held accountable for his crimes, which include crimes against humanity as well as narco-trafficking crimes, so I’m not shedding any tears that his reign of terror is over,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But to replace one unelected regime with another, which apparently Donald Trump has decided is him, is wildly inappropriate.”

The Weston Democrat wants an immediate transfer of power to Edmundo Gonzaléz, the opposition party candidate who faced Maduro in an election in 2024.

Most political observers agree Gonzalez received more votes in that contest. Yet Maduro remained in power, sworn into another term last year. The election followed Maduro threatening the arrest of other political opposition, including María Corina Machado, a political party leader removed from the ballot.

“The Venezuelan people voted to elect Edmundo Gonzalez as president and supported their political party overwhelmingly, with nearly 70% of the vote,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Donald Trump today said in his press conference that, I mean, he had the audacity to say that Maria Corina Machado is a nice woman, but has no support in the country. That is an inexplicable thing to say that is not reflective of the truth.”

Trump at a press conference Saturday dismissed questions about Machado, who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, taking over as Venezuela’s leader.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader if she doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” Trump said.

Wasserman Schultz represents the highest concentration of Venezuelans living in the U.S. She said her own constituents certainly welcome the end of Maduro’s reign, but she fears what may come next.

“What I’m concerned about is that it is a very murky, uncertain aftermath of this,” she said. “I welcome the removal of Maduro. My constituents, I know, are overjoyed about that. But this could very quickly devolve into chaos and disorder. What we cannot have happen is that you cut off the head of a snake only to have a different and equally as evil head reappear.”

Trump on Saturday said Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s Vice President, whom he now says has succeeded the deposed leader. “She was, as you know, picked by Maduro,” Trump said. “So Marco’s working on that directly. He just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

But reports also emerged that Rodriguez may have relocated to Russia, a nation which condemned the arrest of Maduro as “an act of armed aggression against Venezuela.” Rodriguez in an interview with state media called for the U.S. to provide proof of life for Maduro and for supporters to take to the streets.

Wasserman Schultz said she fears no plan exists for preserving order or restoring justice in Venezuela. To have done so without consulting with Congress, she said, was clearly unconstitutional and unwise.

“The elements of what he engaged in would have been improved by consultation with Congress, because ensuring that there was a full plan that results in a democratic transition to the duly elected leaders that Maduro usurped power from is what should happen,” she said.

She added that congressional leadership, including Republicans in control of the House, must convene hearings and obtain answers on the undertaking of a military mission without congressional approval.

Wasserman Schultz also said the impending chaos makes it more important than ever that the Trump administration restore temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans in the U.S.

“How do you send Venezuelans back to a country with that kind of chaos, disorder, uncertainty and danger?” she said. “That is the very definition of what TPS is for, to protect people from that kind of threat.”