Man, talk about a rough start on the job. Delcy Rodríguez has only been in office as Venezuela’s president for a couple of months, and she’s already dealing with a major mess. The ground is literally shaking under her feet with earthquakes hitting the country, and at the exact same time, Donald Trump is leaning heavy on her with a whole list of political demands. She is caught in a straight-up pressure cooker.

Let’s keep it a hundred: trying to run a country when you just got the job is hard enough. But when the earth starts cracking open, you have to move fast to make sure regular folks on the street have food, shelter, and safety. That’s the real-world domestic need right there. People don’t care about political speeches when their houses are shaking; they want to know the government has their back.

But instead of being able to put all her focus on helping her people, Rodríguez is forced to play chess with Washington. Trump is pushing his demands, and since the U.S. has crazy leverage, she can’t just ignore him. She’s stuck trying to satisfy a foreign superpower while trying not to look weak to her own people back home who are already dealing with enough drama.

This is how it always goes for leaders in the Global South. The minute a natural disaster hits, the big players in global politics try to use that vulnerability to get what they want. It’s a dirty game, and Rodríguez is finding out real quick how high the stakes are when you’re trying to hold down a country in crisis.

For the average person on the ground in Venezuela, all this high-level political posturing doesn’t mean much if the state can’t handle the basics. Rodríguez has to prove she can deliver real relief to the communities affected by these earthquakes. If she fails the streets, her presidency is going to be in major trouble, no matter what she tells the U.S.

So now, the new president is walking a super thin line. She’s got to manage the immediate fallout of a natural disaster, keep the peace at home, and somehow handle the pressure coming out of Washington. It’s a lot of weight to carry for someone who’s only been in the driver’s seat for a few months.

We’re going to see what she’s really made of in the coming weeks. If she can handle the earthquakes and keep Trump at bay without selling out her own people, she might actually survive this. But right now, she’s fighting a battle on two fronts with zero room for error.

Sources: * United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) * United States Department of State, Office of Venezuelan Affairs * Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela * United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program