The ruthless Venezuelan enforcer now in Trump’s crosshairs: Maduro loyalist in charge of murderous death squads is warned he faces same fate as dictator if he does not fall in line

The Trump administration has warned Venezuela’s hardline interior minister that he could be at the top of its target list if he does not help interim leader Delcy Rodriguez meet U.S. demands following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro.

Diosdado Cabello, who controls security forces accused of widespread human rights abuses, is one of a handful of Maduro loyalists that President Donald Trump has decided to rely on as interim rulers to maintain stability during the transition.

But American officials are particularly concerned that Cabello could play a spoiler role, given her record of repression and history of rivalry with Rodriguez, and are trying to coerce her into cooperating while seeking to remove her from power and exile her.

The US, through intermediaries, informed Cabello that if she defied, she could face a fate similar to Maduro’s and could go to New York to face trial on charges of ‘narco-terrorism’ or see her life in danger.

Cabello is in charge of a state apparatus long accused of grossly abusing Venezuelans by, among other things, killing civilians outside the law, sexually abusing and humiliating girls and women, and planting evidence and weapons on innocent people.

According to the UN’s 2019 report on the situation of human rights in Venezuela, Special Operations Forces (FAES) have been regularly involved in extrajudicial killings of people, especially in Venezuela’s slums, since their inception in 2016.

The UN found that FAES officers, dressed from head to toe in black and armed to the teeth, regularly arrived at homes in the slums in unmarked black pickup trucks.

The report states: ‘Families of the victims described FAES breaking into their homes, taking their belongings, and committing gender-based violence against women and girls, including forced nudity.

‘They were separating young men from other family members before shooting them. According to relatives, almost all of the victims were shot with one or more bullets in the chest.

Agents of the FAES, long accused of being Maduro’s political tool, also regularly planted evidence and justified killings by firing their weapons to suggest a full-blown conflict was taking place.

The report said: ‘In many cases FAES brought victims to hospital even though they were dead, apparently in an attempt to manipulate the bodies and alter the crime scene.’

Two intelligence agencies, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), are also accused of abuse.

They are accused of torture using horrific methods such as rape, electric shock and waterboarding.

The UN report states: ‘Women and men were subjected to one or more forms of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including electric shock, asphyxiation with plastic bags, waterboarding, beatings, sexual violence, deprivation of water and food, stress positions and exposure to extreme temperatures.

‘Security forces and intelligence services, particularly SEBIN and DGCIM, routinely resort to such practices to obtain information and confessions, and to intimidate and punish detainees.’

Removing Cabello could be risky, possibly motivating pro-government motorcycle groups known as The Colectivos to take to the streets, unleashing the chaos Washington wants to avoid.

An explosion occurred in Caracas early on Saturday morning during the US military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs as they head towards the Federal courthouse in Manhattan after landing at a helipad in Manhattan on January 5, 2026.

Colectivos are a group of paramilitary militias that still support deposed leader Nicolas Maduro and search vehicles at checkpoints.

The bikers, many masked and armed with Kalashnikovs, searched phones and cars for evidence of people supporting Trump’s action in Caracas as an unofficial tool of the state.

The 90-day state of emergency imposed by the Venezuelan government following Maduro’s arrest orders police to ‘immediately launch a national search and capture anyone who encourages or supports US armed aggression.’

Many Colectivos members were seen posing with Maduro’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, who still clings to the idea that Maduro is the legal president of the country.

‘Here the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. In a statement made through the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Cabello said, “No one should fall for the provocations of the enemy.”

A video of Cabello, who has a $50 million bounty on her head for drug trafficking in the USA, with militia members circulating on social media He sees them chanting a slogan that means: ‘Always loyal, never traitor.’

Also on the list of potential targets is US defense minister Vladimir Padrino, who is indicted for alleged drug trafficking and has a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head.

“This remains a law enforcement operation and we are not done yet,” said a U.S. Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Colectivos are a group of paramilitary militias that still support deposed leader Nicolas Maduro and search vehicles at checkpoints.

Gangs of gunmen on motorcycles are patrolling the streets of Caracas, searching for supporters of Donald Trump and his military operation in Venezuela, with the support of at least one key government official

US officials see Padrino’s cooperation as vital to preventing a power vacuum that could arise due to his command of the armed forces.

The source briefed on the administration’s thinking said they believe she is less dogmatic than Cabello and more likely to toe the U.S. line as she seeks her own safe exit.

A senior Trump administration official declined to answer specific questions from Reuters but said in a statement: ‘The president is talking about putting maximum pressure on the remaining elements in Venezuela and getting them to cooperate with the United States by stopping illegal immigration, stopping the flow of drugs, revitalizing the oil infrastructure and doing what’s right for the Venezuelan people.’

Venezuela’s communications ministry, which fulfilled all press requests to the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.