Delcy Rodriguez's Public Face

Delcy Rodriguez is widely quoted as saying she's had "enough" of U.S. interference and orders. Telesur, which I hadn't looked at in forever, really gets into it but it's getting play in all the major U.S. outlets as well. It is in fact getting so much play and so little official pushback that it feels planned. In that sense, Telesur is (unwittingly or not) following right along with U.S. policy.

She's obviously facing intense pressure from within the regime, but the rest of Venezuela didn't suddenly lose their sense of nationalism. They wonder whether the U.S. is simply sucking the oil and profit out of the country. She has to be allowed to give fiery speeches every once in a while to bolster an image of nationalism and sovereignty. This has plenty of precedent in Latin American history more broadly. Fidel Castro himself was consistently involved in quiet talks with the U.S. while explaining he had to give a certain kind of speech publicly. That could well be what's happening here.