The Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela has ordered that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assume the role of acting president while Nicolás Maduro is held captive by the United States.

"This Chamber [Constitutional] considers there are elements indicating the configuration of a situation of presidential impossibility [...] and likewise considers that the Constitution in its article 239.6 attributes to the Executive Vice President the function of temporarily substituting for the president," states the communiqué.

"It is ordered that citizen Delcy Eloina Rodríguez Gómez, Executive Vice President of the Republic, assume and exercise in the capacity of acting president all the attributes, duties, and powers inherent to the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the integral defense of the Nation," it added.

On Saturday, the U.S. launched a massive military action against the Latin American nation, affecting the city of Caracas "and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira," and concluded with the capture of the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.

The Venezuelan government qualified Washington's actions as "an extremely grave military aggression." Caracas warned that the objective of the attacks "is nothing other than to seize the strategic resources of Venezuela, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to break by force the political independence of the Nation."

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded "the immediate release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife." She added that Maduro is the "only president of Venezuela."

Many countries around the world, including Russia, urged the release of Maduro and his wife. Moscow repudiated the attack and stated that Venezuela must have the right to decide its own destiny without any intervention from the outside, declared the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Saturday when commenting on the U.S. attack against the Bolivarian country. "Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to decide its own destiny without any destructive, much less military, intervention from abroad," reads the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.