{"id":25082,"date":"2026-08-02T10:59:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=25082"},"modified":"2026-08-02T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:59:38","slug":"how-delcy-rodriguez-went-from-maduro-loyalist-to-trump-proxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=25082","title":{"rendered":"How Delcy Rodr\u00edguez Went From Maduro Loyalist to Trump Proxy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt2ac9f870764ca3ed\/6a6a5425160b3c5b57a6d5ca\/2I6A6730-Edit-2.jpg?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodr\u00edguez on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace. \u2014Fabiola Ferrero for TIME<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p>Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, the acting president of Venezuela, conducts the nation\u2019s business out of the Miraflores Palace, a 19th century neoclassical mansion in the heart of Caracas. Gilded portraits of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/archive\/6643245\/end-of-the-revolution\/\" target=\"_self\">Hugo Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> gaze down on the ornate halls. Birds chirp in the manicured gardens. An unusually tight security detail shadows Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s every step. The caution is understandable: Not long ago, the U.S. sent a Delta Force unit into her predecessor\u2019s residence on a nearby military base to <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7342941\/venezuela-maduro-bombing-trump-delta-force\/\" target=\"_self\">seize the man<\/a> she had served for years.<\/p>\n<p>Which may help explain Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s careful manner. She speaks regularly with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/collection\/100-most-influential-people\/2026\/marco-rubio\/\" target=\"_self\">Marco Rubio<\/a>, and her English is nearly flawless. Yet when she sits down with TIME for a rare interview with an American media outlet, she summons a translator. I suggest it would be easier to speak in English.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I do interviews, I like to do them in Spanish,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not sure that\u2019s best for this one,\u201d I say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is best for me,\u201d she replies with a faint smile.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to understand her strategy. Speaking through an interpreter slows the conversation and gives Rodr\u00edguez greater control over the words that ultimately reach the page. It is the instinct of a disciplined operator who has spent decades in one of the world\u2019s most unforgiving political systems\u2014and who is now navigating an\u202fextraordinary diplomatic moment.<\/p>\n<p>A socialist stalwart who rose through Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s inner circle before serving for years as Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s second-in-command, Rodr\u00edguez, 57, was among the most recognizable faces of a movement largely defined for decades by its hostility toward the U.S. Today, she is the steward of a remarkable rapprochement with Washington. In exchange for U.S. support, she has allowed Trump and Rubio to turn Venezuela into a de facto vassal state, giving them an unprecedented <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/11\/us\/politics\/how-marco-rubio-runs-venezuela.html\" target=\"_self\">degree of influence<\/a> over her country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an hour-long interview, Rodr\u00edguez insists she is not surrendering Venezuelan sovereignty but opening the country\u2019s economy in the best interests of its people. \u201cI\u2019m starting out by acting in good faith and trusting that these relationships can develop in good faith,\u201d she tells me. \u201cMy current and future strategy has always been to ensure peace and tranquility in the country\u2014tranquility and social and economic well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltfb8d523bf70ba5c0\/6a6a60ad0782373b774ded67\/TIM260817-Venezuela-Cover-FINAL.jpg?branch=production\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p><em><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/magazineshop.us\/venezuela\" target=\"_self\"><em>Click here to buy your copy of this issue<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The nation Rodr\u00edguez now governs is not the same country that existed before the raid that captured Maduro. Before his fall, Venezuela was in stark decline: riddled with corruption, teetering on economic collapse, and ruled by an authoritarian who the U.S. and independent international observers say stole his 2024 election. Hyperinflation had wiped out citizens\u2019 savings. Oil production, the lifeblood of the economy, had plummeted after years of graft, underinvestment, and sanctions. Nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unrefugees.org\/news\/venezuela-crisis-explained\/\" target=\"_self\">8 million Venezuelans<\/a> had fled, fueling the largest migration crisis in the history of the western hemisphere. Rolling blackouts, water scarcity, crumbling hospitals, and shortages of food and medicine had become routine. Once among Latin America\u2019s wealthiest nations, Venezuela had devolved into one of its poorest.<\/p>\n<p>Since Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7344628\/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-oil-drugs-war-explainer-questions-answered\/\" target=\"_self\">ascension in January<\/a>, signs of recovery have begun to emerge. Construction cranes have reappeared over parts of Caracas. Store shelves are fuller. Dormant oil fields are stirring back to life. American companies\u2014including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/21\/world\/americas\/exxon-venezuela-oil-trump.html\" target=\"_self\">ExxonMobil<\/a>, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, and GE\u00a0Vernova\u2014have returned or begun negotiating new investments. Commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-resumes-commercial-passenger-air-service-venezuela-2026-04-30\/\" target=\"_self\">have resumed<\/a> for the first time since 2019. The dollar circulates openly. Foreign executives, diplomats, and investors are filling hotels\u2014the lobby of the JW Marriott is now a gathering place for oil executives, while at the more exclusive Cayena Caracas, impeccably dressed financiers and government officials mingle amid polished marble and soft jazz, discussing exploration rights, infrastructure contracts, and Venezuela\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>All this has come at a price. Under an arrangement <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7344479\/venezuela-oil-rubio-trump\/\" target=\"_self\">overseen by Rubio<\/a>, the U.S. has become deeply involved in Venezuelan state affairs. In an arrangement described to TIME by three senior U.S. and Venezuelan officials, the U.S. Secretary of State supervises the framework governing Venezuela\u2019s oil revenues and public finances, effectively administering a joint fund that gives Washington influence over everything from how the country\u2019s export earnings are allocated to the reopening of the energy sector to preferential treatment for American companies. Rubio and Rodr\u00edguez are in near\u00a0daily contact through phone calls and WhatsApp messages, officials say. Rodr\u00edguez consults him on domestic appointments, including her selection of a Defense Minister, according to three officials familiar with the arrangement. \u201cBasically, you have what they call the Rodr\u00edgato operating,\u201d says James Story, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela under Presidents Trump and Biden, describing an arrangement in which Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s government remains in power while carrying out Washington\u2019s strategic priorities. \u201cThey are doing everything that we ask them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt15326701f7e761d0\/6a6b59cc94f3fd209d5d10f8\/GettyImages-2254061778.jpg?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>U.S. President Donald Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe (L) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio monitor U.S. military operations in Venezuela, from Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago Club on January 3, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. \u2014Molly Riley\u2014The White House via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p>Washington and Caracas now cooperate on intelligence and counternarcotics operations too. In June, the partnership resulted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp36z37knlko\" target=\"_self\">the killing<\/a> of Ni\u00f1o Guerrero, the leader of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, at his compound in Venezuela\u2019s Bol\u00edvar state. Rodr\u00edguez says Venezuela supplied the intelligence that located Guerrero and deployed forces on the ground, enabling the U.S. airstrike. \u201cThe important thing is that there are opportunities for joint cooperation,\u201d she tells me. \u201cAgainst drug trafficking, for example, and against transnational organized crime. That is very important to us.\u201d Thousands of political detainees have been released under an amnesty framework encouraged by the U.S., while negotiators continue hammering out dozens of additional economic agreements.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela has become a case study of Trump\u2019s ability to reshape the world in pursuit of his own priorities, unbound by the diplomatic conventions that restrained his predecessors. He launched an extralegal campaign of force and coercion, beginning with strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats and culminating in the capture of a sitting head of state, who was brought to the U.S. to face drug and weapons charges. Maduro is now in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/22\/nicolas-maduro-court-us-drug-trafficking-case\" target=\"_self\">federal jail <\/a>in New York City, replaced by a subservient successor the Trump Administration believed would comply with American interests while preserving stability in Caracas.<\/p>\n<p>Small and slender, dressed in tailored suits and oversize glasses, Rodr\u00edguez projects the demeanor of a technocrat rather than a firebrand. Cooperation with the U.S. has allowed her to consolidate power during a period of tremendous upheaval. The bargain is as brazen as it is fragile, and the leverage runs both ways. Over two decades, Rodr\u00edguez established herself as one of Chavismo<em>\u2019s<\/em> indispensable figures. There is no guarantee another leader could sustain such an arrangement\u2014or would choose to align Venezuela with Washington rather than Beijing or Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>For Rodr\u00edguez, the role requires a delicate balancing act. Few Venezuelans mourn Maduro\u2019s departure after years of oppression and economic collapse. But relief at his ouster has not translated into enthusiasm for his successor. To many, she is more sellout than savior. But her future rests less on public affection than on her ability to satisfy Trump\u2019s demands, and to convince citizens that becoming a client state of a despised foreign power is in the national interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When a <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/06\/25\/venezuela-earthquake-doublet-magnitude-casualties-explainer\/\" target=\"_self\">major earthquake<\/a> struck Caracas in June, killing <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/venezuela-earthquakes-deaths-d32eecaceabe88b93670e27accabfea2\" target=\"_self\">more than 5,000 people<\/a> and causing an estimated $6.7 billion in damages, the new relationship with Washington produced dividends. The State Department assembled a $300 million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/06\/world\/americas\/earthquake-venezuela-haiti-us-aid.html\" target=\"_self\">reconstruction package<\/a>, and the U.S. Southern Command provided military support for the relief effort. An aide to Rodr\u00edguez points to moments like that as proof that the bargain can be a boon, even as Venezuelans criticized her for taking too long to address the catastrophe publicly, waiting eight days before holding a press conference.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the arrangement will ultimately improve the lives of ordinary Venezuelans or merely enrich a privileged elite remains unclear. Rodr\u00edguez has taken few steps to institute democratic reforms. \u201cMillions of Venezuelans that want to come back are only going to do it if they are certain that their rights will be respected,\u201d says Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/peace\/2025\/summary\/\" target=\"_self\">2025 Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and now lives in exile. To Machado, who was barred from running in Venezuela\u2019s most recent elections, Rodr\u00edguez has capitulated to Washington in pursuit of power and self-preservation. \u201cShe\u2019s willing to give away anything she\u2019s asked for\u2014anything,\u201d Machado says. \u201cThat\u2019s the way those that have committed crimes reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodr\u00edguez rejects the criticism. \u201cI try to ensure that another country\u2019s domestic policy does not affect Venezuela,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez tells me. \u201cI hope that Venezuela does not become a pawn in any other country\u2019s political agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltafc48e44339aaf87\/6a6b5a676465516a973cf2f6\/AP26023846053153.jpg?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>This image from video provided by U.S. South Command, shows a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean shortly before it was destroyed by the U.S. military, killing two and injuring one, on Jan. 23, 2026. \u2014U.S. Southern Command\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt1c4a28479f293ed5\/6a6b5a7a0b7a7ed986964bc8\/h_16446042.jpg?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>Nicolas Maduro, the ousted president of Venezuela, is escorted off a helicopter en route to the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Monday morning, Jan. 5, 2026. \u2014Vincent Alban\u2014The New York Times\/Redux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p>As we sit in a room of polished marble and gold leaf, Rodr\u00edguez recounts the chain of events that propelled her to power with the soft, measured cadence of someone accustomed to exercising authority without raising her voice. On Jan. 2, she recalls, she met with Maduro to discuss Venezuela\u2019s economic plans and the ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c4gej5ezyypo\" target=\"_self\">naval blockade<\/a> the U.S. had imposed since December. Afterward, she flew to Margarita Island, the Caribbean resort off Venezuela\u2019s northern coast, where her brother and nephews were vacationing. She arrived around 11 p.m., only a few hours before the frantic phone calls began.<\/p>\n<p>In the early hours of the morning, U.S. military units infiltrated Maduro\u2019s compound inside the Fort Tiuna military complex as he slept. They found him in his pajamas, arrested him, and whisked him and his wife out of the country. \u201cWe went through a moment of great anguish when we thought they had killed the President and the First Lady,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez tells me. \u201cThen we learned they were taking him to the United States. That changed the situation completely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s first calls was to an unlikely figure: Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, with whom she had cultivated a relationship. \u201c\u2018Now the responsibility rests on your shoulders,\u2019\u201d Rodr\u00edguez recalls him saying. \u201c\u2018You have a responsibility to preserve Venezuela.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Rodr\u00edguez and U.S. officials, Qatari officials helped arrange a conference call between her and Rubio on the afternoon of Jan. 3. \u201cIs Maduro alive?\u201d she asked. Rubio assured her he was; to prove it, U.S. officials sent photographs of him in a jumpsuit aboard a helicopter en route to New York. The Secretary of State then delivered an ultimatum: meet U.S. demands or face continued military pressure. Rodr\u00edguez agreed. An aide says she saw no viable alternative. \u201cIf I\u2019m completely honest,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez tells me, \u201cwe never thought the capital of the country would be attacked, much less imagined what happened to the President and the First Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She spoke to Trump for the first time the following morning. \u201cWe discussed how diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States could be established and what areas of common interest might be identified,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez says. Trump wanted access to Venezuela\u2019s vast oil reserves, seeing them as a way to increase global supply, lower energy prices, and strengthen the U.S. economy ahead of the midterm elections. But he delegated the logistics to Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, for whom uprooting leftist regimes in Latin America is a long-standing priority. As Secretary of State, he suddenly had an opportunity to pursue that ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, the U.S. would receive the proceeds from most Venezuelan oil exports and then disburse the money back through Venezuela\u2019s banking system. The structure, one senior U.S. official explains, would function like an escrow account: Washington would release funds only as Caracas met agreed-upon conditions. By controlling the flow of revenue, the U.S. would gain leverage over how the money was spent while limiting corruption and the influence of rival foreign powers. In return, Rodr\u00edguez would remain President, buoyed by an influx of American investment and the economic benefits of renewed integration. The Trump Administration saw it as a straightforward trade-off: political stability in exchange for economic oversight, energy access, and the strategic realignment of one of the world\u2019s most resource-rich countries.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>One morning a few weeks later, Rodr\u00edguez received an unexpected call from Rubio. \u201cI\u2019m putting you on the line with someone who wants to say hello,\u201d Rubio told her. It was Trump. According to Rodr\u00edguez, the President told her he was pleased with her cooperation following the Maduro extraction. As a reward, he said, the U.S. would restore commercial flights to Venezuela. By April, American Airlines resumed service between Miami and Caracas. In May, United Airlines launched flights from Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s fixation on Venezuela had grown since his return to office. He dispatched Rubio to El Salvador to broker an unprecedented agreement with President Nayib Bukele. As part of Trump\u2019s mass-deportation campaign, the U.S. transferred hundreds of detained Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador\u2019s notorious CECOT prison, drawing fierce criticism from human-rights groups and immigration advocates. Trump justified the move by saying the migrants were members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang he portrayed as the embodiment of the border crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The situation intensified when intelligence reports allegedly indicated vessels departing Venezuela were transporting drugs toward the U.S., Administration officials say. Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed Trump to respond with a campaign of military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats, according to two senior White House officials. Trump authorized the strikes, hoping military pressure would compel Maduro to dismantle trafficking networks, crack down on criminal gangs, and open Venezuela\u2019s vast oil sector to American investment. When Maduro was captured, U.S. boat strikes had killed more than 100 people over the course of 10 months, according to Just Security; as of June 21, the number of deaths has more than doubled, with 215 killed in 66 strikes. Many legal experts argue that the strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels violated both international law and the limits of presidential war powers under the U.S. Constitution. \u201cOne state is only really supposed to use force against another state when that other state has committed an armed attack against it or threatened imminent armed attack against it,\u201d says Scott Anderson, a former State Department official and national-security law expert at the Brookings Institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But while Trump saw a chance to secure access to Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves, Rubio saw an opportunity to remake the balance of power in the western hemisphere. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller soon joined the effort. Increasingly eager to expand his portfolio beyond immigration into national security, he viewed Venezuela as the point where those issues converged. Miller argued limited military pressure would never change Maduro\u2019s calculus, a senior White House official tells TIME. He pushed for a more aggressive approach. (Miller declined to comment for this story.)<\/p>\n<p>As Rubio, Miller, and their advisers continued briefing the President on the boat strikes, they emphasized Venezuela\u2019s growing importance as a platform for American adversaries, including Cuba, Russia, and China, which had deepened their foothold through oil, military and intelligence cooperation, and economic support. \u201cThe type of influence that existed in that country is incompatible with U.S. interests,\u201d a State Department official says. Senior U.S. officials were determined to change Maduro\u2019s behavior\u2014or remove him from power. \u201cOur objective was simple: persuade Maduro to sever those relationships,\u201d the State Department official adds. \u201cHe was unwilling to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt05fb298dca0a2b33\/6a6b5afb87ccc52d174554de\/h_16480449.jpg?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>Oil tankers at the Cardon refinery in Punta Cardon, Venezuela, on Jan. 29, 2026. \u2014Adriana Loureiro Fernandez\u2014The New York Times\/Redux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p>According to the State Department official, the Administration persuaded Turkey to offer Maduro safe harbor if he agreed to leave Venezuela peacefully. He refused. \u201cThe inflection point was in December, when we sent him an offer via the Turks, and the offer basically was, if you leave the country permanently to Turkey or some other acceptable place, we\u2019ll leave you alone, but you\u2019ve got to leave the country,\u201d another State Department official says. \u201cHe basically ignored it. He had multiple off-ramps where he could have left and lived happily ever after somewhere else, giving us the opportunity to work with someone else inside the government to make those changes. Instead, he posted silly videos of himself dancing and singing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That \u201csomeone else,\u201d Rubio believed, was Delcy Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Rodr\u00edguez was born into one of Venezuela\u2019s most politically committed left-wing families. Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodr\u00edguez, was a student leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement. He was arrested, tortured, and killed by government security forces in 1976, when she was just 7 years old. His death became a defining event in her life. Alongside her older brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez\u2014who heads the National Assembly\u2014she was raised in the ideology of the Venezuelan left. Trained as a lawyer, she followed in her father\u2019s footsteps, rising through Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s government before becoming one of Maduro\u2019s closest confidants. She served as Venezuela\u2019s Foreign Minister, in role in which she became one of the regime\u2019s most combative international defenders, denouncing U.S. sanctions while strengthening ties with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba. In 2018, Maduro elevated her to the vice presidency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But international diplomats viewed Rodr\u00edguez as a technocrat rather than an ideological hard-liner. \u201cShe was seen as a more pragmatic figure,\u201d says Christopher Hernandez-Roy, a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cThey picked her with a gun to her head, but she seemed to understand the country\u2019s economics, and she had long been deeply involved in its oil sector. That\u2019s obviously one of the Administration\u2019s highest priorities\u2014the recovery of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry.\u201d Rodr\u00edguez had long advocated for greater economic openness. She had also been responsible for attracting foreign investment and rebuilding relationships with international energy companies. According to multiple officials, Rubio concluded that Rodr\u00edguez was a realist with a grip on the levers of government, and who would be willing to meet Washington\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n<p>Rodr\u00edguez argues the relationship has already reaped benefits for the country. During the Maduro years, Chevron had been the only major U.S. oil company to maintain a significant presence. Now it may be joined by ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Halliburton. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are negotiating more than 30 agreements that would give American firms a foothold in Venezuela\u2019s energy sector. \u201cThe most important thing is that companies from the United States are returning and arriving,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez says.<\/p>\n<p>The shift reflects the carrot Trump has dangled: renewed access to American capital and global markets. The bet is that economic integration can induce geo-political alignment after decades of Chavista rule. It\u2019s not yet clear, though, how much of this influx of capital has reached ordinary Venezuelans. Reliable polling remains scarce under the country\u2019s authoritarian system. Venezuelans celebrated Maduro\u2019s removal in large numbers, but many remain wary of Rodr\u00edguez, viewing her as someone who abandoned the cause to which she had devoted her political career. \u201cThe Venezuelan people don\u2019t miss Maduro, right?\u201d an aide to Rubio tells TIME. \u201cThey fully recognize that he was a bad actor and a destabilizing influence. The oil was tremendously valuable to the people of Venezuela. It was stolen by very corrupt elites and used to pay off massive debts to China, Cuba, and others. No more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To some Venezuelans, however, Rodr\u00edguez is a new face for the same regime. She spent years helping administer a government accused by international investigators of widespread human-rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings. \u201cShe was part of a regime that systematically violated human rights,\u201d says Diego Area, an expert on Venezuelan politics at the Atlantic Council. \u201cShe comes from normalizing practices that are considered crimes against humanity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>For all the changes<\/strong> under\u00a0way in Venezuela, the biggest one\u2014a transition to genuine democracy\u2014still appears distant. Rubio sees it as part of his mission to rid Latin America of its remaining socialist autocracies and lay the groundwork for Venezuela to one day hold a legitimate election and complete a democratic transition, according to a State Department official. At his behest, Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s government enacted an amnesty law in February covering political violence from Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s rise in 1999 through the present. (The law includes those accused of participating in the 2002 coup attempt against Ch\u00e1vez and individuals implicated in violent unrest in 2014 and 2017.) Venezuelan authorities say roughly 9,000 detainees have been released since the passage of the amnesty law. Rodr\u00edguez says she is prepared to have the process independently reviewed. During our interview, she says she has asked the U.N. Human Rights Office to audit the releases, arguing that outside scrutiny will confirm the government\u2019s compliance with its commitments.<\/p>\n<p>But there are few signs that Venezuela is moving quickly toward free and fair elections. \u201cTrump\u2019s not focused on democracy building,\u201d says Story, the former ambassador to Caracas. \u201cIf anything goes bad, it increases instability and further erodes the chance of companies coming in and making investments. That\u2019s the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodr\u00edguez expresses little urgency either. \u201cVenezuela will hold elections when it is ready,\u201d she tells me. \u201cThere are extremist groups that called for military aggression against Venezuela, and the Venezuelan people\u2014especially those who experienced the attack firsthand\u2014feel a great deal of fear,\u201d she says, referring to the country\u2019s competing power centers and the persistent risk of political violence.<\/p>\n<p>But when will that moment come? What conditions must exist before Venezuela holds open elections? \u201cI feel that moment will come when all of the country\u2019s political actors reach an understanding and we can tell the nation that we, as politicians, are ready,\u201d she says, skirting the question. Rodr\u00edguez says she would welcome international election observers, provided they respected Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>When I ask whether she intends to run for President herself, she pauses. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Then I ask the question that hangs over every discussion of Venezuela\u2019s future: Would Rodr\u00edguez allow Machado to return and compete? Rodr\u00edguez sidesteps it. \u201cWe have to move on to a new political era,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the answer is no?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy answer isn\u2019t no,\u201d she replies. \u201cMy answer is that there will be a political moment when coexistence and peaceful coexistence will be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The answer doesn\u2019t mollify Machado. \u201cI understand the U.S. government decided to start with the process of stability, but in order to make that sustainable, you certainly need legitimacy,\u201d she says. \u201cThey fear an election because they fear the people, they fear popular sovereignty. They know what the Venezuelan people desperately desired.\u201d Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s halting response to the tragic earthquake, Machado adds, \u201cexposed the true nature of the regime: its lack of humanity, its display of infinite corruption and incompetence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Rodr\u00edguez, everything comes back to survival. \u201cShe needs to follow the guidance of the U.S. government, which at some point will include renewing democratic institutions and rules,\u201d says Area. \u201cShe will do it not because of her democratic commitment, but as a means to achieve her political objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That would be not simply surviving politically, but creating conditions under which she\u2014and perhaps Chavismo itself\u2014can survive after power. She wants guarantees that she\u2014a woman whose father was killed by the state\u2014can remain in Venezuela without fearing imprisonment or retribution from a future government. \u201cThat\u2019s what survival means for her,\u201d Area says. \u201cTo make it so the system will be stable and able to govern itself, which will potentially include her being able to participate in the new Venezuela. It\u2019s about survival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, Rodriguez is keen on reintegrating the nation into global markets: diversifying the economy, attracting long-term foreign investment, and ensuring that Venezuela\u2019s prosperity no longer depends on a single commodity. The day before our interview, executives from General Electric sat across from Rodr\u00edguez discussing ways to modernize Venezuela\u2019s aging electrical grid.<br \/>(General Electric did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n<p>Whether these ambitions survive Trump\u2019s presidency remains uncertain. Current U.S. foreign policy is animated by the application of leverage, economic incentives, coercion, and transactional dealmaking to draw former adversaries into America\u2019s orbit. Venezuela\u2019s future will depend not only on Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s ability to manage the relationship with her current counterparts, but also on whether Trump\u2019s successor embraces the strategy or chooses another path.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As our interview comes to an end, we wander through the sunlit gardens of the palace. I tell Rodr\u00edguez I\u2019m flying home the next day, connecting through Miami on one of the newly restored commercial routes. She smiles. Pretty soon, she says, I can skip the layover. \u201cMaybe next time,\u201d she says, \u201cfly from Washington to Caracas.\u201d <em>\u2014With reporting by Leslie Dickstein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodr\u00edguez on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace. \u2014Fabiola Ferrero for TIME Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, the acting president of Venezuela, conducts the nation\u2019s business out of the Miraflores Palace, a 19th century neoclassical mansion in the heart of Caracas. Gilded portraits of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez gaze down on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt2ac9f870764ca3ed\/6a6a5425160b3c5b57a6d5ca\/2I6A6730-Edit-2.jpg?branch=production","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}