Delcy Rodríguez is the figure Washington chose to run Venezuela after capturing Nicolás Maduro, and now she is the leader Washington is quietly prepared to destroy if she stops cooperating with U.S. demands in Caracas.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has spent the past two months walking the flimsiest tightrope in Latin America: governing a country whose oil, politics, and future are effectively controlled by the United States, and at the same time trying to placate the demands from the Chavista hardliners in Caracas.
In an exclusive report published by Reuters, sources say that a “sealed indictment” by the U.S. Justice Department for charges of conspiracy and money laundering, backed by the Trump White House, is being weighed over the head of Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, in case of future obstinacy on the part of the acting government.
On the DEA’s Radar Since 2018
The scrutiny of Rodríguez is not new. According to records obtained by the Associated Press, backed up by more than a half-dozen current and former U.S. officials, the DEA labeled Rodríguez a “priority target” in 2022—a designation the agency reserves for suspects believed to have a significant impact on the drug trade. But U.S. authorities have been investigating the now-interim president since 2018, when she rose to occupy the vice presidency under Nicolás Maduro.
The investigation was driven largely by the DEA’s elite Special Operations Division—the same unit that worked with Manhattan prosecutors to indict Maduro in January.
One confidential informant linked Rodríguez to hotels on Margarita Island, allegedly used to launder money out of Venezuela. The informant alleged Rodríguez was tied to the regime’s money launderer and Colombian-born Venezuelan businessman, Alex Saab, who was arrested by U.S. authorities in 2020 and later pardoned by President Joe Biden.
Rob Zachariasiewicz, a longtime former DEA agent who led investigations into top Venezuelan officials, said, “Venezuela is a failed state that supports terrorism, corruption, human rights abuses, and drug trafficking at the highest echelons. There is nothing political about this analysis,” he added, “Delcy Rodríguez has been part of this criminal enterprise.”
A Secret Indictment—Held in Reserve
The investigation may have advanced further than Washington has publicly acknowledged. Valentina Lares Martiz, editor-in-chief of Armando.info—an investigative outlet run by Venezuelan journalists who have closely tracked Venezuelan corruption—stated during a February webinar hosted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that the U.S. is holding an indictment against Rodríguez, ready to make it public “just in case she derails” from the Washington agenda in Caracas.
Kurt Lunkenheimer, a former federal prosecutor in Miami who has handled multiple Venezuela-related cases, urged caution about the distinction between investigation and indictment, stating, “The issue is when people talk about you, and you become a high-priority target, there’s a difference between that and evidence supporting an indictment.”
For the moment, however, Rodríguez remains in Washington’s good graces. President Trump referred to her as a “terrific person” who remains in close contact with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who traveled to Caracas to meet with her personally shortly after Maduro’s capture in January.
But Trump’s own warning, delivered publicly after recognizing her as Venezuela’s acting leader, left little ambiguity about the terms of the arrangement.
“If she doesn't do what’s right,” Trump said, “she is going to pay a very big price—probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said in late January.
