Venezuela's Veep: Did She Cut a Deal with Trump?
Emergency Throwback
With the dramatic “extraction” of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last night, the ruler de jure of Venezuela is Vice President Delcy Rodríguez—there is a real possibility that she made a deal with Washington and will emerge as rule de facto as well.
I profiled her just over a month ago as the U.S. began to mass forces in the Caribbean. It has insight into both VP Rodríguez and how the Venezuelan kleptocracy operates. I share it below, but a few key points:
The vice presidency of Venezuela is effectively a prime minister. The vice president plays a major role in the government. VP Rodríguez runs SEBIN, one of the major intelligence agencies and the all-important Petroleum Ministry. Her brother is also a major figure in the regime. All of this is to say that she has her hands on the levers of power.
Rodríguez, a committed Chavista, is sanctioned by numerous countries, but has also made pragmatic moves to relieve pressure on Venezuela’s economy. That doesn’t mean she’s a reformer, only that she is realistic.
There are numerous questions about what comes next. The legal and moral aspects of this operation are problematic. It could give a green light for similar operations by other powers, like Russia and China. No one should lose sight of the reality that the Venezuelan regime is a truly terrible one and that the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans are happy to see Maduro gone. (For more on this see the always excellent Latin America Risk Report.)
A Veep on the Inside
The Trump administration has dismissed opposition leader and Nobel Laureate María Corina Machado as a potential leader of Venezuela. Trump has said instead that the U.S. will be running Venezuela, particularly the oil industry. It is unclear what planning has gone into future planning for Venezuela. Given Trump’s commitment to not get into foreign wars, it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that the U.S. will deploy enough troops and other resources to stabilize the country. It is probably not helpful that the administration eviscerated USAID, VOA, the State Department, and other agencies that traditionally had capabilities useful for post-conflict stabilization.
VP Rodríguez is possibly in Russia (UPDATE: it is now clear that she is in Venezuela) right now and has condemned the U.S. operation and demanded Maduro’s return; all while Trump has described her as “cooperating.” There were rumors that the U.S. had approached her as an alternative to Maduro. She denied that she would do such a thing. But Rodríguez’s potentially timely absence and the presence of highly placed CIA sources around Maduro raise the possibility that a deal was made. Rodríguez will squawk publicly, but after things settle down, will give the U.S. a bunch of things it wants in exchange for lifting sanctions. Given Rodríguez’s work with crypto, there’s probably a crypto play here. Trump will claim a big victory. But the Bolivarian kleptocracy will continue under new leadership.
The people of Venezuela will continue to suffer.
Venezuela’s VIV (Very Important Veep)
Originally posted on November 25, 2025
Since we may be going to war with Venezuela (I certainly hope not), it seems like an opportune time to look at the Executive Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic Delcy Delcy Rodríguez.
Besides the presence of some pretty impressive U.S. naval power right offshore, the Venezuelan regime is under pressure from multiple directions.
The country is a socio-economic basket case on every level. It is probably the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world not caused by a war. Over the past decade the economy has shrunk by half, Over two-thirds of Venezuela’s 29 million people live in grinding poverty, and over 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country.
Most nations have condemned Venezuela’s elections as illegitimate and the leader of the opposition, María Corina Machado, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Should Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro leave office (one way or another), Vice President Rodríguez could be a central player in shaping Venezuela’s future. More than a few analysts have speculated about her being the next president or leading a transition to a democratic system. Rodríguez and her brother Jorge (a former vice president) have loudly denied that they have proposed themselves to the U.S. as potential alternatives to Maduro.
In most Latin American nations the vice presidency is very much an afterthought; held at a distance by the president—in great part because Latin American vice presidents are more likely to be removed from office. But since its new Constitution in 1999 the Venezuelan vice presidency was expressly established to be a key player in the government.1
The Vice Presidency Reborn
The position of vice president of existed in Venezuela from 1830 to 1864. It was reinstated in 1901 and lasted in 1928. In 1999 newly elected president Hugo Chávez held a Constitutional referendum which established the Fifth Republic and reinstated the office as the Executive Vice President.
The new constitution established the Executive Vice President as a quasi-prime minister, with broad responsibilities for overseeing government operations. The VP is appointed and can be dismissed by the president. They preside over the Federal Council on Government (Article 185) which oversees decentralization of authorities to the States and Municipalities in order to ensure balanced development. They preside over the Cabinet of Ministers, when this responsibility is delegated to them by the President. The VP also presides over the Council of State, which is the highest consultative body in the nation and they are a member of the National Defense Council.
From an institutionalist standpoint, the most notable item about the office is that they are appointed by and can be fired by the president. Executives know to be careful about assigning tasks to someone you cannot fire. In the U.S. this applies to VPs and to First Spouses. The option of removal allows Venezuela’s president to give greater authority to the VP.
It is counter-intuitive that weakening the vice presidency in one regard, making the position subject to the president’s pleasure, can strengthen the role in practice. A central goal of Chávez’ new Constitution was to strengthen the presidency and a prime minister-esque vice presidency was a component of this project.
Since the position was re-established, eight individuals were VP under Chávez and another four served under his successor (former vice president) Nicolás Maduro. That’s an average of less than two years in the position. Having taken the position in June of 2018, Rodriguez has had the longest tenure in office. Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez was vice president in 2007. He is currently the president of the National Assembly.
This longevity in office indicates that VP Rodríguez is a combination of loyal and capable.
An A+ Apparatchik
Born in 1969 or 1970, Delcy Rodríguez’ father, leftist guerilla Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, helped found the Socialist League and masterminded the 1976 kidnapping of an American businessman, William Niehous. Rodriguez was arrested on July 23, 1976 and died on July 25 after being tortured. He was 34. Delcy was seven and her brother was ten.
She has a law degree, her brother is a psychiatrist. Both were involved in student and academic politics, attached themselves to the Chávista movement, and rose steadily.2 Delcy Rodríguez’s first role in the government was on the staff of the newly established vice presidency. She had turns in executive positions at the Ministry of Energy and Mines and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She then took high-level positions in Chávez’s office and at the Vice President’s office while her brother held that position. In 2013 President Nicolás Maduro appointed Delcy Rodríguez to Minister for Communication and Information. In late 2014 she became Minister of Foreign Affairs, where she was an aggressive defender of the Maduro regime on the world stage.
She stepped down from that position to preside over the Constituent Assembly, which was elected to revise the Constitution. With the opposition controlling the National Assembly, the Constituent Assembly declared itself the ultimate national authority. In 2018 she became Vice President. As vice president she also oversees the state intelligence agency and in 2024 was given the all-important Petroleum Ministry.
As Vice President, Rodríguez has been a pragmatic fixer. She has obviously not cured the nation’s economic ills. But she has mitigated and buffered some of the effects. In 2021 she spoke at the Annual Assembly of Fedecámaras (the equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce.) This was the first appearance by a leader of the Bolivarian regime in 20 years and a significant move for the ostensibly Socialist movement. It was also necessary. She offered a new openness by the regime to the private sector, on the condition that they stay out of politics.3
As VP (and oil minister) Rodríguez has travelled to China and other allies to push oil sales, privatized small oil fields and other natural resources, and has overseen efforts to buffer Venezuela against U.S. sanctions—including moving much of the nation’s finances to crypto. The VP has her fingers in in many pies, including the management of the nation’s oldest university and even the national soccer team.
The VP is also head of SEBIN, the main intelligence agency, which has the mission of protecting the Bolivarian revolution.4 SEBIN spies on and disappears journalists and other dissidents and uses torture. It is a central component to the state’s apparatus of repression.5
DelcyGate
The ultimate test of one’s status in an a criminal autocracy is whether or not they are sanctioned, and Vice President Rodríguez, along with the rest of Maduro’s inner circle, has been under U.S. sanctions since September 2018 for their criminal activities and repressing democracy.
She was also sanctioned by the European Union, Canada, and others. In many cases these sanctions were placed on Venezuelan officials before the United States did so.
Also, her plane is sanctioned and was seized earlier this year.
That’s led to some weird stuff.
In January 20, 2020 VP Rodríguez, along with a delegation, landed at the Madrid airport. The plane and the rest of the delegation were on their way to Turkey. Sanctioned by the EU, Rodríguez was not permitted on Spanish soil. Spain’s Transport Minister Jose Luis Ábalos and businessman Victor de Aldama went onto the vice president’s plane—ostensibly to ensure that she did not try to enter Spain. (She did ultimately go to the VIP section of the airport to transfer to a commercial flight to Doha.)6 In 2024, Spain’s Guardia Civil, investigating Aldama and Ábalos for corruption, found that Ábalos had invited Rodríguez to Spain and that Delcy tried to sell Aldama 104 ingots of Venezuelan gold (easily worth over $50 million).
This alleged gold deal highlights that VP Rodríguez is a central figure in Venezuela’s kleptocracy. Should Maduro depart the scene the vice president is not a secret reformer. She may be pragmatic, but she will also have the resources and skill to slow-roll any transition.
I cite them throughout, but the great Caracas Chronicles is a fantastic source for all things Venezuela!
Jorge Rodríguez was mayor of Caracas from 2009 to 2017. He has also been the president of the National Electoral Council and Minister for Communication and Information (a position his sister had held previously.)
There is a history of bad blood between the Chavistas and Fedecámaras (beyond the usual conflict between a Socialist regime and the business community). In 2002 there was an attempted coup against Chávez and the temporary president installed was Fedecámaras head Pedro Carmona. That lasted for 36 hours.
The Bolivarian regime has been advised by the Cubans from the beginning and one area where the Cuban regime excels is intelligence.
The support both Rodríguez siblings give for the most heinous acts of their government is particularly sad given the fate of their father.
Of course there’s a Qatar angle to all of this, they’re into everything!