Venezuela’s new leader Delcy Rodriguez is hardline socialist who kept Maduro in power for years… and she’s already making threats against Trump

Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, issued threats to Donald Trump following the capture of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, who is currently languishing in a New York federal prison.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court confirms hard-line socialist Vice President Rodriguez as Maduro’s successor Just hours after US forces detained him and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Saturday on charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

Trump said he preferred 56-year-old Rodriguez in power over the country’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, and added that Maduro’s Vice President was ready to work with the United States.

“I think he was pretty nice, but he doesn’t really have a choice,” Trump said of Rodriguez at a press conference in which he said the United States would “rule” the country.

‘He’s actually willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. It’s very simple.”

But the Maduro loyalist who has helped maintain his regime for more than a decade vented his anger at Trump’s capture of the despot he calls his country’s true leader.

Rodriguez, who also serves as the minister responsible for finance and oil, criticized Maduro’s arrest as ‘a persecution that violates international law’ and called for his ‘immediate release’.

“We call on the people of the great homeland to unite, because what happened to Venezuela can be done to anyone,” he said at the National Defense Council session after the US military operation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appears to be detained by US law enforcement

‘This brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country.’

He also hinted that he is less than eager to help the United States rule Venezuela, as Trump has suggested.

Trump gave few details about the logistics of governing Venezuela, which has a population of 30 million, but suggested the country’s vast oil reserves would provide funds for its revitalization.

“We will never again be slaves, we will never again be a colony of any empire,” said Rodriguez.

‘We are ready to defend Venezuela.’

Given his unrepentant loyalty to Maduro, Trump’s choice to work with him over opposition party figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has sparked fears among many Venezuelans.

He has been one of the important figures of the Chavismo political movement founded by President Hugo Chávez for more than twenty years.

Chavez died in 2013 and Maduro came to power and became leader of the party.

President Donald Trump is seen next to CIO Director John Ratcliffe as he monitors the US military operation to capture Madura and his wife

Trump announced that the USA carried out the operation on Saturday and shared it on Truth Social.

Constitutional lawyer and political analyst José Manuel Romano said: CNN He said Rodriguez had become a “very important” figure in the Latin American country’s government, with Maduro’s “complete trust”.

‘The vice president of the Republic is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills to manage teams,’ Romano said.

‘He is extremely results-oriented and has significant influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defence. ‘It is very important that this is taken into account in the current circumstances.’

Rodriguez hails from the country’s capital, Caracas, and earned a law degree from the Central University of Venezuela.

His father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a Marxist guerrilla who was one of the founders of the militant left movement called Socialist Unity, which was active in the 1960s and 1970s. Wall StreetJournal.

He has held many government positions since Chavez became the country’s leader.

He served as the minister of communications and information between 2013 and 2014. He was foreign minister from 2014 to 2017.

As foreign minister, he fiercely defended far-left Maduro’s image amid international scrutiny that he violated human rights and threatened democracy.

He also accused United Nations governments of trying to undermine Venezuela in this role.

In 2017, Rodriguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly, which expanded the government’s powers following the opposition party’s victory in parliamentary elections in 2015.

Maduro was appointed vice president for a second term in 2018. Following highly controversial elections in July 2024, he selected her to take on the role once again for a third term.

Rodriguez is seen with Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in 2018. Flores was arrested along with her husband this weekend.

Seen in September 2025, Rodriguez was a key figure in the chavismo political movement led by Maduro.

The opposition party claimed that this election was rigged and that Maduro was not legitimately elected president of the country.

They said the real winner was Urrutia.

Throughout the alleged scandals and criticism Maduro has faced, Rodriguez has shown unwavering support for his authoritarian power.

His brother, Jorge Rodriguez, has also risen through the political ranks and is currently president of the National Assembly.

“They are very, very manipulative,” Andrés Izarra, a former minister under Maduro who was exiled after breaking ties with the regime, told the WSJ.

‘I think they will maneuver to stay in power as best they can.’

Colombia’s former vice president, Francisco Santos, said he was “absolutely sure” that Rodriguez had betrayed him, despite his historic loyalty to Maduro.

“They didn’t impeach him, they handed him over,” Santos, who was Colombia’s vice president from 2002 to 2010 and later became the country’s ambassador to the United States, told news channel NTN24.

‘I’m absolutely confident that Delcy Rodriguez has delivered it…She’s very clear about the role she’s going to play and she’s going to try to gain some independence.’

Trump announced on Saturday that the United States launched a military attack following multiple explosions in the capital Caracas.

Maduro and his wife were captured and sent to America for trial. They are being held in Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Center.