Acting President of Venezuela leads Council of Ministers number 758
This Wednesday, the 758th Council of Ministers meeting is being held at Miraflores Palace, chaired by the acting president of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez. The meeting includes the cabinet and sectoral vice presidents to address priority issues for the country’s economic development and to guarantee peace for the Venezuelan people.
This meeting is the second to be held at the beginning of this year, following the events of January 3, with the aim of establishing new strategies to face current challenges and incorporating the newly appointed authorities.
The acting president recently announced the creation of two sovereign wealth funds using oil revenues. The first, for Development and Social Protection, will improve the income of the country’s workers; this improvement, in turn, “will also benefit the productive and commercial sectors,” Rodríguez explained.
The second is the Infrastructure and Services Fund, designed to leverage economic and social development through investment in basic services.
Similarly, Rodríguez initiated the creation of the National Committee for the Defense of Economic Rights within the National Council for Productive Economy 2026. In this instance, she emphasized that its purpose is the active participation of the national Executive alongside the private sectors (oil, agri-food, industrial, commercial, communal, banking, and non-oil exporters) in defending Venezuela’s economic rights before multilateral organizations and international bodies.
Deputy Jorge Rodríguez points out that new laws respond to current demands
The president of the National Assembly (AN), Jorge Rodríguez, explained that the reforms and approval of new laws being promoted respond to the need to adjust the legal framework to the demands of the country.
This Thursday, Parliament began the first discussion of the draft partial reform of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, in addition to submitting to debate the draft Organic Law of Socioeconomic Rights and the Organic Law for the Acceleration and Optimization of the Administrative Procedures and Processes of the Public Administration.
In this regard, the president of the National Assembly indicated that “these are necessary reforms” and, in the case of the first instrument, said that what is sought is “to allow an accelerated increase in oil production in Venezuela.”
He recalled that President Nicolás Maduro and acting President Delcy Rodríguez have emphasized that “oil underground is useless.”
“What good is it to say that we have the largest oil reserves on the planet if the conditions – from the blockade and sanctions, to the cumbersome elements of the legislation – prevent an accelerated process for us to increase oil production?” he asked.
In that context, he asked the deputies to move forward with the discussions so as not to waste time and to achieve the approval of this law presented by the acting president on January 15 before the full Parliament, when she delivered her annual message to the nation.
Minister Padrino López: Venezuela was the laboratory for using unknown weapons
“Venezuela was the laboratory for using unknown weapons,” stated the Vice President for Defense and Sovereignty, General Vladimir Padrino López, pointing out that during the military aggression carried out by the United States against the country on January 3, weapons were used that had never before been used on a battlefield, as revealed at the Davos Forum (Switzerland) by US President Donald Trump.
Padrino López made that statement during the Ceremony of handover and reception of the direction of the military academies of Venezuela, held this Thursday, at Fuerte Tiuna, in Caracas.
“In this same place where we are standing right now a military aggression was committed by the world’s leading nuclear power, the most lethal in the world. As President Donald Trump stated explicitly and clearly yesterday from Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, they used weapons that had never been used on a battlefield, weapons that no one else in the world possessed. And those weapons, that technology they used against our people on January 3, 2026, have turned out to be the laboratory where that aggression culminated in what we already know: the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, the First Lady, and Congresswoman Cilia Flores,” the high-ranking officer affirmed.
Venezuela thanks Russia for its support in the release of President Maduro
The Venezuelan government expressed its gratitude to Russia for its defense of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations; this was highlighted by Foreign Minister Yván Gil after a meeting with the Russian ambassador to our country, Sergey Mélik-Bagdasárov.
The meeting served to discuss the bilateral relationship and the alliance of solidarity between our nations, he reported on social media.
“We also express our appreciation for the firm rejection by Vladimir Putin’s government of the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, an illegitimate act according to international law,” he added.
He highlighted the strategic alliance focused on cooperation within the framework of the High-Level Intergovernmental Commission (HLAN) and the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Treaty.
A letter was submitted to the UNDP headquarters demanding the release of Maduro and Flores
Representatives from the health sector gathered outside the headquarters of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Caracas to accompany the children of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores as they delivered a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The letter demands the immediate release of the presidential couple, currently detained in the United States, and condemns the military aggression.
The document denounces what it describes as a “grave violation of the principles of international law and human rights committed by the United States government against the Venezuelan people and our families.”
The letter recounts the events of the early morning of January 3 in Caracas and other states, where US bombings left more than 100 dead, including civilians and military personnel. The text emphasizes that this military action did not have the approval of the UN Security Council, which, according to the complaint, constitutes an illegal aggression against Venezuelan sovereignty.