Five months after Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez locks down power in Caracas

Introduction: continuity as a survival strategy

The same stage, a different hand on the levers

Five months after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by American special forces, interim president Delcy Rodríguez has methodically consolidated her grip on the Venezuelan state apparatus. According to CNN, the choreography of power in Caracas still looks, on the surface, like it did before the American operation, but the foundations of chavismo are starting to shift under the pressure of her pragmatic management.

Rodríguez now chairs meetings with senior officials, receives foreign envoys and welcomes the press at the Miraflores Palace, occupying the space left vacant by her former mentor with an ease that surprises even some analysts.

Normalization without democratic transition

Analysts describe this situation as "normalization without transition," a term that neatly captures the current Venezuelan paradox: the regime changes face without changing nature, while plans for free elections remain stalled for months on end.

The turning point of January 6, 2026

The arrest that changed everything

The weekend of Maduro's capture by American elite troops marked a rupture point in Venezuela's recent history. According to Blue News, Rodríguez was immediately sworn in as interim president, declared a state of emergency and ordered a crackdown on suspected collaborators in the American operation.

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have since appeared before a court in New York to answer drug-trafficking charges, pleading not guilty at their first hearing.

A legitimacy contested from the start

During a special session of the United Nations Security Council, Venezuela, Russia and China jointly demanded Maduro's release, calling the American action a violation of international law, a position the United Kingdom and several European states rejected while also refusing to recognize Maduro's legitimacy.

The silent purge of the security circle

A methodical reshuffle of the services

According to Reuters, Rodríguez appointed 65-year-old General Gustavo González to head the feared military counterintelligence agency DGCIM, an agency built with Cuban support over decades. Several sources describe this appointment as an early move meant to contain the greatest perceived threat to her authority: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

Cabello, an uncompromising figure with close ties to the security forces and the colectivos motorcycle gangs notorious for violence against the opposition, remains Rodríguez's chief internal rival in this quiet power struggle.

Replacing the head of the presidential guard

Just three days after Maduro's capture, Rodríguez also replaced Javier Marcano Tábata as head of the presidential honor guard with Gustavo González López, following internal criticism of that unit's failure to prevent Maduro's arrest.

The economic bet with Washington

A calculated opening toward the United States

According to Reuters, Rodríguez met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Caracas, a gesture confirming her government's strategic pivot toward a pragmatic rapprochement with Washington, in exchange for an increase in Venezuelan oil production.

David Smilde, a Venezuela expert and professor at Tulane University, sums up the situation this way: Rodríguez is walking a tightrope between meeting American demands and preserving the unity of the chavista movement, a perilous exercise she appears to be managing for now, according to observers.

The nickname that says it all

Nicknamed "the tsarina" because of her business-world connections, Rodríguez continues to hold both the roles of interim president and oil minister, consolidating direct control over the most strategic sector of the Venezuelan economy.

Prisoner releases as bargaining chips

Hundreds of detainees released

The Venezuelan government released 406 people in mid-January, a process publicly praised by Donald Trump himself, according to figures cited by Bloomberg. Among them were American citizens and other foreign nationals, a gesture clearly calibrated to ease relations with Washington.

Rodríguez and her brother, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, both stated that this release process would continue, under the supervision of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello himself.

A diplomacy of calculated gestures

These releases, far from being a disinterested humanitarian gesture, fit into a broader strategy of normalizing relations with the United States, where every released prisoner serves as a bargaining chip in the wider negotiations over oil sanctions.

The cascading cabinet reshuffle

New faces, the same power architecture

Rodríguez elevated Calixto Ortega Sánchez, the former central bank governor, to vice president for the economy, a strategic position coordinating the country's entire economic policy across several ministries at once.

She also appointed lawmaker Juan Escalona, a close ally of Maduro's, as minister of the presidency, a pivotal role that serves as the main link between the different branches of the Venezuelan executive and facilitates the implementation of presidential policies.

The uncertain fate of Alex Saab

Replacing Maduro's confidant, Colombian businessman Alex Saab, at the head of the merged Production and Trade ministries with Luis Antonio Villegas illustrates Rodríguez's intent to gradually sideline the figures most closely associated with the fallen former regime.

The oil sector under watch

PDVSA at the heart of the stakes

Key positions within the state oil company PDVSA and the oil ministry are under close review, according to sources close to the matter cited by Bloomberg. Rodríguez, who personally retains the oil portfolio, intends to keep direct control over this sector, still the country's economic lifeline despite years of mismanagement under Maduro.

Increasing oil production is one of Washington's main expectations of the new government, a goal Rodríguez appears determined to reach in order to consolidate her budding relationship with the United States and attract new foreign investment.

The return of longtime economic allies

Two little-known Ecuadorian economists, Patricio Rivera and Fausto Herrera, who have advised Rodríguez since at least 2019, now play a key role in the economic management of the interim government, according to internal sources cited by Bloomberg.

Félix Plasencia's return to the diplomatic game

A former foreign minister back in the picture

Félix Plasencia, who attended a meeting with Trump administration officials in Washington, is being considered to once again become foreign minister or Venezuela's ambassador to the United States, as the bilateral relationship continues to gradually improve according to several concurring sources.

This return signals Rodríguez's intent to professionalize and stabilize diplomatic channels with Washington, after years of strained relations under Maduro's presidency marked by the regime's growing international isolation.

A cautious reconstruction diplomacy

This more conciliatory diplomatic approach should not be mistaken for deep democratic reform: it remains above all an exercise in political and economic survival for a regime seeking to avoid total collapse after the fall of its historic founder.

The weight of the street and a weakened economy

A population paying the price of the transition

The Venezuelan population continues to endure soaring prices for essential goods in the wake of the American military operation, according to Reuters, while also having to contend with a military patronage apparatus built over decades of chavista governance that remains largely in place.

Rodríguez must therefore juggle the demands of immediate economic stabilization with the need to preserve the loyalty networks that guarantee her personal political security, a precarious balance that could break at any moment according to analysts consulted.

A gradual return to public speech

A sign of changing times, public officials are now once again allowed to speak on the platform X, a symbolic loosening that contrasts with the endless marathon speeches that characterized the Maduro era, replaced by markedly more concise public appearances under Rodríguez.

The internal divisions threatening Rodríguez

Seven sources, one shared concern

According to a Reuters investigation based on seven internal sources including diplomats, businesspeople and politicians, deep divisions run through the Venezuelan government, exposing Rodríguez to real risks as she tries to consolidate her authority while meeting American expectations on oil exports.

A source close to the government sums up the situation in one telling sentence: "she fully understands that her survival depends on American approval," a statement that places the relationship with Washington at the absolute center of all of Rodríguez's political calculations today.

The specter of a chavista backlash

In this tense atmosphere, Rodríguez must convince the party's historic loyalists that she is not simply an American puppet who betrayed Maduro's legacy, a rhetorical balancing act that could collapse at the slightest political miscalculation.

What this means for the region

A precedent watched by the neighbors

The evolution of the Venezuelan situation is being closely followed across the capitals of Latin America, where several governments are watching how Washington manages the political fallout of a direct military intervention against a sitting head of state.

This affair could redefine regional norms on foreign intervention and the management of post-authoritarian transitions, with potential repercussions reaching well beyond Venezuelan borders in the years ahead.

A Western alignment of variable geometry

While Washington seems satisfied with Rodríguez's current trajectory, some European allies remain more guarded, refusing to fully normalize relations with a government still stemming directly from the chavista system they have long criticized.

Trump's ambiguous role in this file

A displayed satisfaction, unresolved questions

According to several sources cited by Bloomberg, President Trump appears "rather pleased" with how Rodríguez is managing the transition, an approval that raises questions about the long-term compromises Washington is willing to accept in exchange for greater oil access and immediate regional stability.

This presidential satisfaction contrasts with the absence of any clear, public demand for the organization of free and transparent elections in Venezuela in the near, defined future.

The necessary evil of realpolitik

This transactional approach from Trump, while it stabilizes an unstable region in the short term, risks indirectly legitimizing a regime that has done nothing fundamentally democratic since the capture of its historic founder.

The persistent absence of free elections

An electoral calendar that still does not exist

Despite cosmetic changes and successive cabinet reshuffles, no concrete date has been set for free and transparent elections in Venezuela, a democratic void that should concern every sincere defender of freedom in the region.

This lack of a clear electoral calendar fuels suspicions that Rodríguez could seek to perpetuate her interim mandate indefinitely, turning a transition meant to be temporary into a new, durable authoritarian status quo.

The responsibility of the international community

It now falls to Western democracies, particularly the United States which initiated this transition by force, to maintain constant pressure to ensure that Venezuela does not simply swap one autocrat for another under a more presentable appearance.

The power struggle with the Cabello clan

A rival who is not disarming

Diosdado Cabello remains the most feared figure in Venezuela's security apparatus, with close ties woven over decades within the military and the country's paramilitary networks. Rodríguez must deal with this reality every day, knowing that an open break with Cabello could trigger a major internal crisis within the chavista movement itself.

This forced cohabitation between two figures with sometimes-diverging visions of the country's future illustrates the structural fragility of current power, where every appointment and every decree must be calculated to avoid a direct, destabilizing confrontation for the regime.

The risk of an internal implosion

Should Rodríguez lose the tacit support of Cabello and his security network, her position could become untenable within a matter of weeks, a scenario closely watched by Western diplomats currently present in Caracas.

Conclusion: a transition suspended between two worlds

The provisional record of five months in power

Five months after the spectacular capture of Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez has shown an impressive ability to consolidate her power while simultaneously managing American demands and internal tensions within the chavista movement. This consolidation, however tactically skillful, does nothing to replace the need for a genuine democratic transition for the Venezuelan people.

The current normalization, described by analysts as a transition without any real rupture, leaves legitimate doubt hanging over the long-term political future of this country, rich in oil but impoverished by decades of poor governance and systematic repression.

What to watch in the months ahead

The coming months will tell whether Rodríguez consolidates a durable personal power without ever holding free elections, or whether the combined pressure of Washington and internal chavista divisions ultimately opens, against all odds, a genuine democratic window for Venezuela.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency note

Who I am and my acknowledged biases

I sign this report as a columnist convinced that the West must remain the center of gravity of the international order, and that authoritarian regimes, whether in Caracas, Moscow or Beijing, must be judged by the same demanding democratic standards. This conviction colors my critical view of the current Venezuelan transition.

I have never traveled to Venezuela and have no direct contact with Delcy Rodríguez's government. My analysis relies entirely on verified reporting from recognized international news agencies explicitly cited in this article.

What I don't know and my method

I cannot guarantee the full accuracy of the internal information reported by anonymous sources cited in Reuters and Bloomberg reporting, even though these agencies enjoy a solid reputation for rigorous journalistic verification.

My method consists of cross-checking multiple independent sources before stating a fact, clearly distinguishing confirmed information from expert analysis, and explicitly flagging my own opinions in the editorial passages identified as such throughout the text.

Sources

Primary sources

CNN — Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez consolidates power five months after Maduro's capture, June 14, 2026

Reuters — Venezuela's new leader, facing internal division, moves to tighten her grip on power, January 17, 2026

Secondary sources

BBC News — coverage of the political situation in Venezuela, June 2026

Bloomberg — Venezuela's Rodríguez Consolidates Power After Maduro Ouster, January 16, 2026

NDTV Profit — Venezuela's Rodríguez Consolidates Power After Maduro Ouster, January 17, 2026

Blue News — Delcy Rodríguez takes power in Venezuela after Maduro's arrest, January 6, 2026