Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in early Monday as Venezuela’s new interim president while her predecessor Nicolás Maduro awaited arraignment in a federal U.S. court on drug smuggling charges, two days after he was captured in Caracas by American special forces.
Rodríguez, 56, is a powerful figure and longtime confidant of Maduro, and she has been backed thus far as the nation’s new leader by Venezuela’s military. She served as Venezuela’s vice president from 2018 until Sunday. Her brother also holds a senior role in the government as president of the National Assembly, Venezuela’s legislature, which has long been controlled by the Maduro regime.
She quickly denounced the U.S. operation as a violation of the United Nations founding charter and a unilateral attempt to force regime change on Saturday, but soon adopted a more conciliatory tone.
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In a social media post following a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Rodríguez called for “respectful international relations” between Caracas and Washington and extended an invite for “the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation.”
Venezuela’s roughly 30 million people face a deeply uncertain future in the wake of President Trump’s actions. It was still unclear on Monday how much autonomy Washington will allow the country, given Mr. Trump’s assertion that America will “run” Venezuela, at least for some time.
Will the U.S. work with Rodríguez?
Mr. Trump said Saturday that the U.S. had been in contact with Rodríguez and “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
But in an interview with The Atlantic published on Sunday, he added a warning.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Mr. Trump said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated in a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the U.S. was willing to give Rodríguez a chance.
“We are going to make our assessments of people,” he told Brennan of the remaining Maduro regime figures still in place. “We’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what, you know, some of what they’ve done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward.”
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” the same day, Rubio reiterated, however, that the Trump administration does not consider Rodríguez or any of her cohorts to have any legitimate claim to power in the country.
“This is not about the legitimate president. We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election,” Rubio told ABC.
“Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections,” he continued. “It’s the reason why Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker — he [was an] illegitimate president. He was not the head of state.”
Delcy Rodríguez’s rise to power in Venezuela
Rodríguez was born in Caracas. Her father was Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a prominent leader of the country’s socialist movement that would go on to take power under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. The new president’s father, however, helped lead the movement before it seized power, and he was arrested for involvement in the kidnapping of American businessman William Niehous in 1976.
He died in police custody, reportedly as he was tortured by the previous Venezuelan regime’s security forces.
His daughter Delcy would go on to study law at the Central University of Venezuela, in Caracas, with further periods of education in Britain and France.
Rodríguez held a number of positions during Chávez’s long reign, but she only rose to real prominence under Maduro. From 2013 to 2014, she served as Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information before being appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a title she held from 2014 to 2017.
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She also presided over an assembly created in response to mass street protests in 2017, which was widely seen as an attempt to sideline the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Venezuela’s legislature, to enable Maduro to consolidate his rule.
In 2018, Maduro appointed her as Venezuela’s vice president, and she remained in that post until stepping in to replace her former boss, as ordered by the country’s supreme court following the dramatic events of the weekend.
In 2020 Rodríguez was also appointed as her country’s Minister of Economy and Finance, where she’s credited with helping to achieve some progress toward stabilizing Venezuela’s sanctions-wracked economy after years of soaring inflation.
In 2024, the role of Minister of Petroleum was also added to her resume.
Despite her very high profile role in the Maduro regime, however, Rodríguez has not been indicted on any criminal charges in the U.S., though she was hit with sanctions imposed during President Trump’s first term, for her role in helping Maduro “maintain power and solidify his authoritarian rule.”