Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim leader after Maduro’s capture?
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s leadership shifted abruptly after President Nicolás Maduro was captured during a U.S. military operation, placing Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez in charge on an interim basis under the country’s constitution, according to Venezuelan authorities.
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Rodríguez formally assumed presidential duties on Saturday under Articles 233 and 234, which mandate that the vice president takes over when the head of state is absent, whether temporarily or permanently. The duration of her interim tenure was not immediately clear.
Within hours of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being taken into custody, Rodríguez convened an emergency session of the National Defense Council with senior ministers and top security officials. She demanded the couple’s immediate release and condemned the operation as a violation of international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty, urging Venezuelans to reject the action and calling on governments across Latin America to denounce it.
Rodríguez, 56, is among the most powerful figures of Venezuela’s ruling movement, known as chavismo, founded by the late President Hugo Chávez and led by Maduro since 2013. A lawyer trained at the Central University of Venezuela, she has long operated at the center of the government’s political, diplomatic and economic machinery, often in tandem with her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the National Assembly.
Her rise has tracked Venezuela’s turbulent political arc. After Chávez’s death, Rodríguez served as minister of communication and information from 2013 to 2014, then as foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In the foreign ministry, she became one of the government’s most vocal defenders on the world stage, regularly clashing with critics at international forums, including the United Nations, over allegations of democratic erosion and human rights abuses. Her appearances were marked by forceful rebuttals to outside pressure and sanctions.
In 2017, as street protests roiled the country and the opposition controlled the National Assembly, Rodríguez was appointed to lead the Constituent National Assembly, a pro-government body that expanded executive power and sidelined the opposition-led legislature. Maduro named her vice president in 2018 at the start of his second term, and she retained the post into his third term, which began Jan. 10, 2025, following the disputed July 28, 2024, elections. Until Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez also served as the government’s top economic official and minister of petroleum, giving her sweeping influence over the state’s most critical portfolios.
The political backdrop remains fraught. Venezuela’s opposition contends the 2024 vote was fraudulent and insists the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia — a position echoed by several governments in the region. That dispute, compounded by years of economic crisis and sanctions, set the stage for heightened confrontation at home and abroad.
As acting leader, Rodríguez now oversees the state apparatus during Maduro’s absence, including security, the economy and diplomatic outreach. Her first moves signaled a hard line toward Washington and an effort to rally domestic and regional support. How long she will serve — and how the institutional balance may shift if the presidency is deemed permanently vacant — will hinge on constitutional procedures and political negotiations that are likely to intensify in the coming days.
- Interim authority: Assumed powers under Articles 233 and 234 after Maduro’s capture.
- Immediate response: Convened the National Defense Council; demanded Maduro and Cilia Flores be released; condemned the U.S. operation.
- Political lineage: Veteran of chavismo; sister to National Assembly chief Jorge Rodríguez.
- Career milestones: Former communication minister (2013–14), foreign minister (2014–17), head of the Constituent Assembly (2017), vice president since 2018.
- Economic clout: Served concurrently as the government’s top economic policymaker and petroleum minister before the transition.
- Election dispute: Opposition and some regional governments say Edmundo González Urrutia won the 2024 vote.
For now, Venezuela’s interim leadership rests with a seasoned operator who has spent two decades defending and enforcing the government’s agenda at home and abroad. The question is whether Delcy Rodríguez can maintain cohesion across the state’s security, political and economic centers while navigating an international crisis — and whether the constitutional interregnum becomes a longer test of power.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
