Venezuela's new leader Delcy Rodriguez is hardline socialist who kept Maduro in power for years... and she's already making threats against Trump
Venezuela's interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, has hurled threats at Donald Trump after the capture of the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, who is now languishing in a New York federal jail.
The Supreme Court of Venezuela confirmed hardline socialist Vice President Rodriguez as Maduro's successor just hours after US forces detained him and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges on Saturday.
Trump said he preferred Rodriguez, 56, in power rather than the country's opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, adding that Maduro's VP was prepared to work with the US.
'She, I think, was quite gracious, but she really doesn't have a choice,' Trump said of Rodriguez during a news conference in which he said the US would 'run' the country.
'She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple.'
But the Maduro loyalist, who has helped him maintain his regime for over a decade, has vented her fury at Trump's capture of the despot, whom she called her nation's rightful leader.
Rodriguez, who also serves as minister for finance and oil, slammed Maduro's arrest as 'an atrocity that violates international law' and called for his 'immediate release'.
'We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone,' she asserted during a National Defense Council session after the US military operation.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been announced as the interim leader of Venezuela
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is seen being taken into custody by US law enforcement officials
'That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country.'
She also insinuated that she was not as on board with helping the US essentially run Venezuela as Trump had suggested.
Trump offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30million, but suggested the country's vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival.
But others are skeptical of Rodriguez being a willing assistant to Trump's plans.
'I don't think that we can count on Delcy Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it,' Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said on CNN's State of the Union with Dana Bash on Sunday.
Rodriguez has not publicly mentioned going along with Trump's agenda for Venezuela - only a desire to protect the country's independence.
'Never again will we be slaves, never again will we be a colony of any empire,' she said on Saturday.
'We're ready to defend Venezuela.'
How should Venezuela balance its independence with pressure from powerful countries like the US?
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President Donald Trump is seen next to CIO Director John Ratcliffe watching the US military operation to capture Maduro and his wife
Trump announced that the US had carried out the operation on Saturday, sharing it on Truth Social
Given her unapologetic allegiance to Maduro, Trump's preference for working with her over opposition party figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has sparked fears among many Venezuelans.
For more than two decades, she has been a significant figure of the Chavismo political movement, which President Hugo Chávez founded.
Chávez died in 2013, and Maduro came into power and became the party's leader.
Constitutional lawyer and political analyst José Manuel Romano told CNN that Rodriguez has evolved into a 'very prominent' figure in the Latin American country's government with 'full trust' from Maduro.
'The executive vice president of the republic is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,' Romano explained.
'She is very results-oriented and has significant influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. That is very important to note in the current circumstances.'
Rodriguez is from Caracas, the nation's capital, and earned a law degree from the Central University of Venezuela.
Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a Marxist guerrilla who co-founded a militant leftist movement called the Socialist League, which was active in the 1960s and 1970s, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Rodriguez is seen alongside Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in 2018. Flores was arrested alongside her husband this weekend
Rodriguez, seen in September 2025, has been a significant figure of the Chavismo political movement, which has been led by Maduro
She has held many government positions since Chavez was the country's leader.
From 2013 to 2014, she was the minister of communication and information. She was the foreign minister from 2014 to 2017.
As the foreign minister, she fiercely defended far-left Maduro's image amid international scrutiny for violating human rights and threatening democracy.
She also accused governments of the United Nations of trying to undermine Venezuela in this role.
In 2017, Rodriguez became the president of the Constituent National Assembly, which expanded the government's powers following the opposition party's 2015 victory in the legislative elections.
Maduro made her vice president for his second term in 2018. He chose her to assume the position once again for his third term, following the highly divisive July 2024 elections.
The opposition party has claimed that this election was rigged and that Maduro was not legitimately elected as the nation's president.
They said that the actual winner was Urrutia.
Throughout the alleged scandals and the criticism Maduro has faced, Rodriguez has demonstrated unwavering support for his authoritarian power.
Maduro is seen being transported to the US following his detainment, as shared by Trump on Truth Social
Maduro, pictured with his wife Flores in 2019, was serving his third presidential term when the pair was captured by US forces
Her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, has also climbed the political ranks and is currently the president of the National Assembly.
'They are very, very manipulative,' Andrés Izarra, a former minister under Maduro who was exiled after breaking with the regime, told The WSJ.
'I think they will maneuver to stay in power as long as they can.'
Despite her historic loyalty to Maduro, Colombia's former vice-president, Francisco Santos, said he is 'absolutely certain' that Rodriguez betrayed him.
'They didn’t remove him, they handed him over,' Santos, who was Colombia's vice president from 2002 to 2010 and later became the nation's ambassador to the US, told news channel NTN24.
'I’m absolutely certain Delcy Rodriguez handed him over...She’s very clear about the role she’s going to play and she’s going to try to earn a little bit of independence.'
Trump announced that the US had carried out a military strike after several explosions rocked the capital of Caracas in the early hours of Saturday.
The overnight mission to capture Maduro and Flores from their Caracas compound took about two hours and 20 minutes.
It involved 150 aircraft targeting Venezuelan air defenses so that military troops could arrive in Caracas in helicopters, The New York Times reported.
An anonymous Venezuelan official told the outlet that 40 people, including military personnel and civilians, were killed during the operation.
Trump confirmed that no Americans died, but two anonymous US officials said about half a dozen soldiers were injured, per the NYT.
Maduro and his wife were captured and flown to America to stand trial. They are being held in Brooklyn's notorious Metropolitan Detention Center.
The US has no troops on the ground in Venezuela, according to the Pentagon.
