Delcy Rodríguez, a leftist and political confidant to captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has suddenly become the country’s interim leader. She is in a delicate situation, pitted between the Trump administration in Washington, which says it expects Rodríguez’s cooperation, and a Venezuelan public that deeply distrusts American influence.

She was declared the acting president by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, Vladimir Padrino López, the country’s defense minister, said Sunday, the day after U.S. forces swept into Caracas, the capital, and seized Maduro.

A longtime political operator with Marxist roots, Rodríguez, 56, entered Venezuela’s political sphere after Hugo Chávez, then the president, was nearly ousted from power in a coup in 2002. Although she wasn’t in the country at the time, Rodríguez and her mother symbolically “took over” the Venezuelan embassy in London, protesting the short-lived rule of Pedro Carmona Estanga, Rodriguez recalled on an official government podcast last year.

Rodríguez would soon return to Venezuela, where she began working in the foreign ministry under Chavez, who had been quickly restored to power.

Her Rise Through the Government

She rose quickly through the government after Maduro came to power in 2013 following Chávez’s death, becoming the country’s communication minister and later its foreign affairs minister. She guided Venezuela amid an economic downturn and fostered a reputation for bridge-building with the country’s economic elites.

She became vice president after Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election and also took over one of the country’s intelligence services. In 2020, she took on more responsibility over the country’s finances as the economy minister.

Rodríguez’s economic credentials have earned respect from some corners of the Trump administration. Under her leadership as Maduro’s vice president, Venezuela’s socialist economy has shifted to a largely free-market capitalist one. Nevertheless, the country has suffered from hyperinflation of over 100%.

Rodríguez has taken special care to protect Venezuela’s coveted oil industry, which has brought in foreign investment and increased production modestly after major struggles during the 2010s.

Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a Marxist who was involved in the kidnapping of William Niehous, an American businessperson who was held in Venezuela for three years. Her brother Jorge Rodríguez has been close with Maduro and is the president of the National Assembly.

The political test ahead is fraught for Delcy Rodríguez. She will need to solidify power and placate an anxious public — many of whom view Maduro’s reign as illegitimate but also distrust American interference. Separately, she will most likely need to kowtow privately to Trump, whose support of her interim government remains unclear and conditional.

In a televised speech over the weekend, Rodríguez issued a fiery threat to those responsible for ousting Maduro, saying in Spanish that “history and justice will make them pay” and that said the United States had kidnapped him.

‘Very Big Price’

Trump told The Atlantic: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price.”

But this political posturing may be more of a public-relations gambit. Both Rodríguez and Trump have expressed a desire for a certain level of cooperation between the two countries even amid their aggressive threats.

On Sunday evening, Rodríguez wrote on social media that “We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Ali Watkins and Victor Mather/Adriana Loureiro Fernandez
c. 2026 The New York Times Company