When U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in a predawn raid on Saturday, it should have been a moment of triumph for Venezuela’s democratic opposition. But rather than endorsing the leadership of Edmundo González, whose victory in July’s 2024 election was stolen by Maduro, President Donald Trump announced he’d work with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president for the past six years. After Trump called her “gracious” and claimed she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court swiftly appointed her as acting president on Saturday, once again sidelining the elected opposition.
Rodríguez is neither gracious nor a reformer. She’s a self-identified communist who has held key positions under both former dictator Hugo Chávez and Maduro, Venezuelan political writer Paola Bautista de Alemán tells Reason. In 2017, Maduro tapped Rodríguez to be president of the illegitimate constituent assembly that usurped the powers of the elected National Assembly to silence the opposition. Later that year, Maduro appointed her to the “Anti-Coup Command,” tasked with taking measures against alleged coup plotters and terrorists, labels routinely applied to peaceful opposition figures.
Maduro is to stand trial in New York, a city of confirmed Trump hatred and a Mayor who, at the very least, is not likely to toe the Trump line.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
It is part of the novelty of Trump that he deals with the power that is, rather than the power that he might like. Hence all the nice things he said to Kim Jong Un in his first term. This would appear to be a continuation of that approach.
There has been a lot of wishful thinking recently – the idea that because Maduro was captured his regime must inevitably collapse. It always amazes me how long regimes can survive especially the really nasty ones. After the first Gulf War lots of people who ought to have known better went around claiming that Saddam’s days were numbered. They weren’t.
We’ll see how this plays out. One thought that occurred to me is that President Trump might use her to hold peaceful elections and complete a peaceful transfer of power in return for her being allowed to exit stage left with her life, her freedom and her property intact. But admittedly that is no more than a guess. 🙂
Yes – D.R. is no better than Socialist Democrat Mayor Mamdani (who just said he wanted to do to New York what the socialist ANC has done to South Africa – and the people who have suffered most in the “New South Africa” have been BLACK people, who have seen their living standards collapse) or “Hakeem Jeffries” – who, if the Collectivist establishment have their way, will be Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2027.
These people are despicable – I fully accept that, but (unlike Maduro) there are no specific charges against them.
In a better world they, Mamdani, “Hakeem”, and D.R. in Venezuela, would not be in the positions they are in – but, sadly, we are not in a better world.
What to do – can D.R. be removed? Removed without a Civil War and breakdown?
Hopefully YES – but we shall have to see.
Well, obviously black South Africans have suffered (a lot) but so have all other South Africans so that makes it OK then 😏
TowBarb;
That is what I consider to be the most likely explanation. This gives him the pretense of following rule-of-law, even in a lawless country. It’s amazing how little fraud might occur in an election patrolled by US Marines…
https://www.libertaddigital.com/opinion/2026-01-06/emilio-campmany-en-venezuela-nada-es-lo-que-parece-7340245/
A Spanish commentator (Emilio Campmany) says what I guessed too.
In Venezuela there was a coup — with Delcy Rodriguez coordinating the ouster of Maduro with the US. He says it was arranged by former Spanish PM. Rodriguez Zapatero.
Thing are not as they appear.
And the capture of Maduro was – thus – more of an inside job, than a brilliant military coup of the US.
Jacob – a lot of Cuban Marxists were killed, and not one American.
It was a brilliant military operation.
So, Trump’s support of Delcy Rodriguez is more than just a random, meaningless gesture. He has probably received some promises from her.
Anyway, it is a realistic move. Trying to remove at once the whole of Venezuela’s power structure is not a feasible task.
It is also said, that the US help of getting the opposition leader, Machado, out of Venezuela (to receive her Nobel prize in Oslo) is part of the show.
a lot of Cuban Marxists were killed, and not one American.
Maybe they were not part of the plot. No sure Venezuelans care so much for Cuban thugs.
I’m surprised there have been no comments, yet, referencing the video that Perry linked to the other day. The Triggernometry interview of Daniel Di Martino.
Di Martino said, and he strikes me as someone who would know, not just be speculating, that the Cartel(s) runs Venezuela including Maduro, Rodriguez and likely all of their minions. And their courts and congress.
I’m guessing Trump knows this; sure as hell Rubio does. If the end game is degrading the Cartel’s power in Venezuela and perhaps more broadly, how might Trump do this? And how does he, and Rubio, Hegseth, Vance, et al., stay alive while trying to do it? I sure hope their security details are up to the challenge!
Damn him! He’s blowing his chance to set up a ten-year-long regime-change fiasco by limiting his goals to the quickly attainable ones!
Boy, I bet the Venezuelans are furious at him! Let’s go to the videocams in the city squares and see just how mad they are . . . .
Think “bounties.”
GregWA
Remember the Cartels are political as well as criminal organisations – yes they murder, rape, and so on, and pile up luxuries for themselves via drugs and Protection Rackets – but they also sincerely believe they are serving “Social Justice”.
And they are CORRECT – they are serving “Social Justice” – which is about plundering.
They are very powerful in many Latin American countries – and in parts of the United States.
Such “Social Bandits” go back long before the drug trade, General Butler came to believe they were serving a noble cause – General “Chesty” Puller believed them to be serving an utterly vile cause.
It depends on one’s political point of view.
It is an old conflict. Even the antisemitism of the socialists in Venezuela (they are blaming “Zionists” for their downfall) is old.
Karl Lueger brought age old antisemitism back into politics – he was elected multiple times as Mayor of Vienna, but each time the Emperor Franz Joseph refused to accept him (Franz Joseph disliked both Lueger Jew-baiting and his Big Government “reform” policies – both of which inspired the boy from Linz)
Eventually Pope Leo XIII intervened and got Franz Joseph to accept Karl Lueger as Mayor of Vienna – as the council (dominated by his party) kept electing him.
But Franz Joseph got his revenge – in 1903 he exercised his veto over the election of a new Pope, who was a supporter of Karl Lueger and his “Social Justice” politics – and the world got the conservative Pope Pius X instead (the enemy of “Modernism” – which now dominates the churches, Catholic and Protestant, who have abandoned traditional doctrine and replaced it with “Social Justice” politics).
1903 was the last use of the ancient veto – even Pius X was against it (even though it was the Imperial veto that made him Pope).
The hope is that Rodriguez realises that the path that Maduro was taking was always going to end in disaster. So another path might be chosen.
If she enriches herself quickly, then allows free elections on the basis she is immune to prosecution — the Pinochet manouevre — then all might end up a lot better for Venezuelans.
Short of going full Pol Pot, it can hardly be worse.
For someone like Trump, what’s not to like?
“It is part of the novelty of Trump that he deals with the power that is, rather than the power that he might like.”
That’s called pragmatism which is definitely not a novelty. Its been going on for thousands of years. Its one of the reasons we are in such a pickle.
“The hope is that Rodriguez realises that the path that Maduro was taking was always going to end in disaster. So another path might be chosen.”
My hope is that a check for 10 million dollars will arrive in the mail tomorrow. Somehow, I think my hope is more likely than yours.
SteveD – President Trump has removed Maduro, but Progressives are still complaining.
They use to demand that President Trump take action against Russia – but now he has taken Russian tankers, they are still complaining. Now the action that they have long demanded, is – “against International Law”.
Odd that nothing is against “International Law” when they are demanding that President Trump does it – but when he does do it, it suddenly is against “International Law”.