Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s leader after Maduro’s capture?

<i>Ariana Cubillos/AP via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez holds a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas

By CNN Newsource

January 3, 2026 5:15 PM

Published January 5, 2026 11:19 AM

By Mauricio Torres, CNN en Español, and Christian Edwards, CNN

(CNN) — When Delcy Rodríguez chaired her first council of ministers meeting as the acting president of Venezuela on Sunday, the portraits of the two leaders who preceded her loomed on the wall behind her.

These were Hugo Chávez, who transformed Venezuela into a socialist state, and Nicolás Maduro, who continued Chavez’s legacy and drove the country deeper into autocracy before his capture by US forces on Saturday.

Rodríguez, 56, is a stalwart of both the Chávez and Maduro governments, having served as Maduro’s oil minister and vice president. The daughter of a Marxist revolutionary, Rodríguez relentlessly defended the Maduro regime against accusations of drug-trafficking and election-stealing. She will be answerable to Venezuela’s socialist movement, chavismo, which is reeling from the toppling of its leader.

But another person will also be watching over her actions as the country’s interim leader: US President Donald Trump.

Despite Rodríguez’s chavismo credentials, Trump said he believes she is “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

But Trump’s praise has come laced with threats. “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic.

Rodríguez, who was formally sworn in as acting president on Monday, is now walking a political tightrope as she tries to defend Venezuela’s shaken sovereignty without angering Washington.

Already, those tensions are becoming clear. At first, Rodríguez condemned the US capture of Maduro as a “barbarity” and a blatant violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. The next day, she struck a more conciliatory tone, offering an “agenda of cooperation” with the United States.

An official with Maduro’s ‘full trust’

Rodríguez was born in Caracas and studied law at the Central University of Venezuela. Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was arrested in 1976 for his alleged involvement in the abduction of William Niehous, an American businessman. He died in police custody.

Delcy Rodríguez has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of chavismo, the political movement founded by Chávez and led by Maduro since Chávez’s death in 2013.

Alongside her brother Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the National Assembly, she has held various positions of power since the Chávez era. She served as minister of communication and information from 2013 to 2014 and later became foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In that role, she defended Maduro’s government against international criticism, including allegations of democratic backsliding and human rights abuses in the country.

As foreign minister, Rodríguez represented Venezuela at forums such as the United Nations, where she accused other governments of seeking to undermine her country.

In 2017, Rodríguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly that expanded the government’s powers after the opposition won the 2015 legislative elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for his second term. She retained the post during his third presidential term, which began on January 10, 2025, following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections. Until the president’s capture, she served as Venezuela’s chief economic authority and minister of petroleum.

Venezuela’s opposition maintains that the 2024 elections were fraudulent and that Maduro was not a legitimately elected president. They insist that the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, a position supported by some governments in the region.

José Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told CNN that the positions Rodríguez has held show she is a “very prominent” figure within the Venezuelan government and someone who enjoyed Maduro’s “full trust.”

Rodríguez “is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,” Romano said.

“She is very results-oriented and has significant influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. That is very important to note in the current circumstances,” he added.

On the path to an understanding with the US?

Hours after Maduro’s capture, and before Rodríguez addressed the National Defense Council, Trump said at a press conference that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with her. According to Trump, she appeared willing to work with Washington on a new phase for Venezuela.

“She had a conversation with Marco. She said, ‘We’re going to do whatever you need.’ I think she was quite courteous. We’re going to do this right,” Trump said.

Trump’s remarks, 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 hard-line figures in the entire system,” Imdat Oner, a policy analyst at the Jack D. Gordon Institute and a former Turkish diplomat based in Venezuela, told CNN.

“Her rise to power appears to be the result of some kind of understanding between the United States and key actors preparing for a post-Maduro scenario. In that context, she would essentially serve as a caretaker until a democratically elected leader takes office,” the analyst added.

CNN has previously reported that US officials have zeroed in on Rodríguez since they believe she can provide a stable transition, offer a more professional relationship than Maduro — and, perhaps most importantly, ensure that future American energy investments are protected.