Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, said the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro was a “complete violation of international law and Venezuelan law,” in remarks reported Tuesday.
The statement came after Maduro’s Saturday capture, a development that also prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to publicly praise Rodríguez while warning that the ruling party must be kept in check, and that the United States should receive “total access” to Venezuela’s oil reserves.
In the account reported by Associated Press, Rodríguez’s relationship with the Trump administration is traced back to 2017, when she was Venezuela’s foreign minister and spotted what the story describes as an opening for engagement with Washington as Trump prepared to take office. The account says Rodríguez directed Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, to make a $500,000 donation to the president’s inauguration.
The story also describes parallel efforts around the same time, including that Trump’s ex-campaign manager was hired as a Citgo lobbyist, courted Republicans in Congress, and tried to secure a meeting with the head of Exxon. The outreach, the AP account says, did not immediately succeed, describing it as a “charm offensive” that “flopped” within weeks of Trump taking office.
According to the account, Trump—urged at the time by then-Sen. Marco Rubio—shifted focus to restoring Venezuela’s democracy in response to what it describes as Maduro’s crackdown on opponents. It says the outreach still “bore fruit” for Rodríguez by making her a prominent face in U.S. business and political circles and by paving the way for her later rise.
The AP account, written by Miami-based investigative reporter Joshua Goodman, says it is drawn from interviews with 10 former U.S. and Venezuelan officials as well as businessmen from both countries, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The account says Rodríguez did not respond to AP requests for an interview.
The story also provides background on Rodríguez’s entry into the leftist movement associated with Hugo Chávez and on how family trauma influenced her worldview. It says her father, described as a socialist leader, was picked up for questioning after a kidnapping in 1976 and died in custody. It describes Lee McClenny, a retired foreign service officer and former top U.S. diplomat in Caracas during the period of Rodríguez’s outreach, as remembering Rodríguez bringing up the murder and blaming the United States for leaving her fatherless at age 7.
Much of the AP account focuses on Rodríguez’s rise under Maduro, describing her as returning to power after Chávez’s death and as navigating internal Chavismo factions. It says that in 2013 Maduro revived Rodríguez’s career and that Maduro promoted her to vice president in 2018, after which she gained control over large parts of Venezuela’s oil economy and brought in foreign advisers.
The account adds that as Rodríguez amassed influence, she dealt with internal rivals, including Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, whom it says was jailed in 2024 as part of an anti-corruption crackdown spearheaded by Rodríguez. It also quotes Hans Humes, chief executive of Greylock Capital Management, describing his view that Rodríguez’s experience would help her try to jump-start the economy, unite Chavismo, and shield Venezuela from stricter terms associated with Trump.
With Maduro captured and Rodríguez installed, the AP account turns to how quickly Venezuela’s political transition could move toward elections. It says elections must take place within 30 days of the presidency being permanently vacated under the constitution. It also includes comments from Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. special envoy to Venezuela during the first Trump administration, who said in the account that nothing Trump had said suggested a quick transition away from Rodríguez and that “No one is talking about elections.”