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Even as he remains detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime appears to remain intact at home, calling for his immediate release from US custody and rejecting Washington's claims that it would assume control of the South American country.

Just one day after US President Donald Trump confirmed that the US had conducted a large scale attack on the country, removing Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their compound in Caracas and transporting them both to the US where they are indicted on criminal charges, Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez held a press conference calling for their immediate release, and throwing support behind Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, constitutionally in line to replace Maduro in the event of his absence, was on Saturday night elevated to Acting President, decrying Maduro’s apprehension and repeating prior claims that the US had intervened to gain control of the country’s vast oil wealth.