Following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the leadership of the South American country has passed into the hands of Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
This is what the Venezuelan Constitution provides in scenarios of the president's absence. According to articles 233 and 234, regardless of whether the absence is temporary or absolute, the vice president assumes presidential duties.
Rodríguez – who also holds the posts of finance and oil minister – took over the role on Saturday afternoon. Hours after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, she chaired a meeting of the National Defense Council, surrounded by ministers and senior officials, where she demanded the couple’s “immediate release” and condemned the US military operation.
Speaking in front of the Venezuelan flag, Rodríguez said the operation carried out in the early hours of the morning constituted a flagrant violation of international law and Venezuelan sovereignty. She added that this action must be rejected by Venezuelans and condemned by Latin American governments.
"We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela could be done to anyone. This brutal use of force to break the will of the people could be applied against any country," she said in a speech broadcast by state television VTV.
An official with Maduro's "full trust"
Rodríguez, 56, is from Caracas and studied law at the Central University of Venezuela.
She has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of Chavismo, the political movement founded by President Hugo Chávez and led by Maduro after Chávez's death in 2013.
Along with her brother, Jorge Rodríguez – currently the president of the National Assembly – she has held various key positions since the Chávez era. From 2013 to 2014, she was Minister of Communication and Information, and from 2014 to 2017, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this role, she defended Maduro’s government from international criticism, including accusations of democratic slippage and human rights abuses.
As Foreign Minister, Rodríguez represented Venezuela in forums such as the United Nations, where she accused other governments of trying to undermine her country.
In 2017, she became president of the National Constituent Assembly, which expanded the powers of the government after the opposition won the 2015 parliamentary elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for his second term. She retained this position during his third presidential term, which began on January 10, 2025, after the disputed elections of July 28, 2024. Until the president's capture, she served as the country's chief economic authority and oil minister.
The Venezuelan opposition insists that the 2024 elections were rigged and that Maduro is not a legitimately elected president. According to it, the real winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, a position also supported by several governments in the region.
José Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told CNN that the positions held by Rodríguez show that she is an "extremely prominent" figure in the Venezuelan government and that she enjoys the "full trust" of the president.
“The executive vice president of the republic is a very effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,” Romano said.
“She is very results-oriented and has great influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. This is very important in the current circumstances,” he added.
Towards an understanding with the US?
Hours after Maduro's capture and before Rodríguez addressed the National Defense Council, US President Donald Trump announced in a press conference that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with the vice president. According to Trump, she had appeared willing to work with Washington on a new phase for Venezuela.
"She had a conversation with Marco. She said, 'We'll do whatever it takes.' I think that was quite polite. We're going to do this properly," Trump said.
His comments, however, surprised some analysts, who believe Rodríguez is unlikely to make concessions to the United States.
"She is not a moderate alternative to Maduro. She has been one of the most powerful and harsh figures in the entire system," Imdat Oner, a political analyst at the Jack D. Gordon Institute and former Turkish diplomat based in Venezuela, told CNN.
"Her coming to power appears to be the result of some kind of understanding between the US and key actors who are preparing for a post-Maduro scenario. In this context, she would essentially serve as a transitional figure until a democratically elected leader takes office," he added.
In her first messages after Maduro's capture, Rodríguez showed no signs of backing down and, without referring to Trump's statements, closed the door on any possible cooperation with the US. In a telephone interview with VTV in the early hours of the morning, she said that the whereabouts of Maduro and Flores were unknown and demanded proof that they were alive. Later, during a meeting of the National Defense Council, she toughened her rhetoric, condemned the US operation and, regardless of the circumstances, insisted that Maduro remains at the helm of Venezuela.
"There is only one president in this country and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros," Rodríguez declared.
