Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim leader after the capture of Nicolás Maduro?

Following the extraordinary US capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, the international spotlight has turned to Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s interim leader and a key player in an explosive geopolitical drama.

President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that Rodríguez had been sworn in as president and was “ready to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Rodríguez, however, sent mixed signals, insisting that Maduro remains Venezuela’s “only president” while also pledging to “collaborate” with the Trump administration.

Rodríguez’s de facto leadership of Venezuela caps a remarkable political rise for an official who served in various positions under the governments of the late socialist President Hugo Chávez and Maduro, who once called her a “tiger” for her vehement defense of his left-wing authoritarian rule.

Here’s what you need to know about Rodríguez, 56, as Maduro faces federal indictment in the United States and Venezuela’s immediate fate hangs in the balance.

Revolutionary roots

Rodríguez was born in Caracas on May 18, 1969. She is the daughter of Marxist guerrilla Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, co-founder of the Socialist League, a militant revolutionary party particularly active in the 1970s.

Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1976 kidnapping of American businessman William F. Niehous. The elder Rodríguez died in police custody at the age of 34. This saga became a founding memory for her daughter and one of the reasons for her political career.

“The revolution is our revenge for the death of our father and his executioners,” Delcy Rodríguez reportedly told a Venezuelan politician in 2018, referring to Chávez’s socialist political agenda.

She maintains close political ties with her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, a trained psychiatrist and president of the National Assembly, the country’s unicameral legislature. He was the country’s vice president under Chávez, who died in 2013.

Detailed CV

Rodríguez is a lawyer by training and graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 1993. She then studied labor law in Paris and social sciences in London before embarking on a career in Venezuelan politics in the early 2000s.

She held various low-profile positions in the Chávez regime before gaining more visible visibility as Minister of Communication and Information in 2013. Next came the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2014 to 2017, as well as leading the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly.

Rodríguez’s loyalty to Maduro gave him his influence and stature, according to Ryan C. Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. That’s the main reason she was “handpicked” for the vice presidency in June 2018, making her second in line for the country’s succession, Berg said.

“She survived multiple positions because of her ability to effectively wield power within this regime,” Berg told NBC News.

In a social media post announcing Rodríguez’s ascension to the vice presidency, Maduro described her as “a courageous, battle-hardened young woman, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles.”

In recent years, Rodríguez has added even more responsibilities to her vice presidential portfolio, serving as Minister of Finance and Oil. The latter put her in charge of overseeing Venezuela’s most crucial trade sector and coveted exports – and tested her resolve as she tried to deal with tough US sanctions on the country’s oil industry and the fallout from inflation.

Rodríguez never faced criminal charges in the United States, although she was sanctioned by the first Trump administration for the role she allegedly played in crushing political dissent in Venezuela.

Uncertainty ahead

It remains to be seen whether Rodríguez will remain in power, and rhetoric from the leaders of Venezuela and the United States has fluctuated since Maduro’s surprising capture.

Trump said Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in contact with Rodríguez, describing her as “gracious” and willing to work with the U.S. government as it pursues Maduro on narcoterrorism charges in New York.

In a televised speech, Rodríguez took a more hostile tone, apparently lambasting “extremists” in the Trump administration and insisting that Maduro was Venezuela’s rightful leader despite his capture and indictment by the U.S. government.

“What is being done in Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” Rodríguez said, according to the Associated Press.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, Rodríguez used much more diplomatic language, emphasizing the need for a “more balanced and respectful relationship” between Venezuela and the United States.

“We invite the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative program oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen sustainable community coexistence,” Rodríguez wrote in part.

Trump then issued a stern warning to Rodríguez, telling a reporter from The Atlantic: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she’s going to pay a very heavy price, probably higher than Maduro.” »

But even if Rodríguez’s interim role evolves into a more permanent position, she will still need to strengthen her political position in Venezuela and what remains of the Maduro regime, according to Berg.

“She does not have the support of some of the main factions” in Venezuela, Berg said, “and above all, she will have to consolidate her support with the armed forces.”