The White House settled on Delcy Rodríguez as an acceptable candidate to lead Venezuela after the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro earlier on January 4, 2026, citing her oil output increases under sanctions, according to a New York Times article linked in an X post shared between 1:45 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. UTC today. The New York Times reported that Maduro's frequent dancing became the final trigger for President Donald Trump to authorize the operation, while opposition figure María Corina Machado was never considered a frontrunner, as posted by @AKurmanaev during the 29-minute reporting window ending at 2:15 p.m. UTC. This follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio's appointment to lead interim U.S. governance of Venezuela, as previously reported. A U.S. Air Force Bombardier E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node aircraft, registration N770AG and callsign BLKWF03, pinged on the ground at San Juan's airport in Puerto Rico moments ago, according to X posts by @Borrowed7Time, @SA_Defensa, @MichaelBonet8, @FlconEYES and @r4streando shared in the past 29 minutes. An X post by @KobeissiLetter highlighted Venezuela's 4 billion tons of iron ore reserves, valued at approximately $428 billion at current prices, underscoring the country's mineral wealth beyond oil and gas during this period of U.S.-led transition.
