Venezuela's Interim President, Delcy Rodriguez, is a "Flawless Leftist" Foreign Affairs and Economics Official
Venezuela's new interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has emerged as a technocrat with a solid leftist background, having previously served as Foreign Minister.
She is the daughter of a Marxist guerrilla who was tortured to death in prison for the kidnapping of an American businessman. Partially educated in France and specializing in labor law, she served as Venezuela's first Foreign Minister, then Vice President, then head of the intelligence agency SEBIN, and in 2020, as Minister of the Economy.
The New York Times described her as "a remarkable success in the Maduro administration and now a successor." "Ms. Rodriguez, 56, is also known for her role as a bridge between Venezuela's economic elite, foreign investors, and diplomats, positioning herself as a globalist technocrat in a militaristic, male-dominated government," the Times reported on the 4th. During Maduro's tenure, from 2013 to 2021, when the Venezuelan economy suffered a severe collapse, she initially served as Minister of Trade and Industry and spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul that provided some economic stability before the US military campaign targeting Maduro.
The New York Times described her economic policies as "a combination of privatization of state assets and relatively conservative fiscal policies that made Venezuela somewhat more resilient to the Trump administration's blockade of oil tankers." However, she also faced sanctions from the US, Canada, and the European Union for her role in supporting and overseeing the suppression of dissent in Venezuela, making her a hardline leader.
She grew up as the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a Marxist leader and leftist guerrilla in Venezuela. Her father was arrested and charged with orchestrating the 1979 kidnapping of American businessman William Nihus, who was later rescued after three years of captivity in a jungle hideout. He was interrogated by intelligence agencies and died in 1976 at the age of 34.
Leftist activism in Venezuelan politics was a key ally of her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, who served as president of the National Assembly and was President Maduro's chief political strategist.
The conflict surrounding Rodríguez surfaced in a speech on Venezuelan state television on March 3, shortly after Maduro's kidnapping.
While President Trump announced that Rodríguez had been sworn in as Venezuela's new president, it was clear that Maduro's supporters—including her—still view him as the country's legitimate leader. In her speech, Ms. Rodríguez repeatedly stated that Maduro was Venezuela's "only president," and Venezuelan state-run television footage also referred to her as vice president.
The New York Times reported that "as soon as she finished her speech, the state-run television station immediately reported that Ms. Rodríguez, as vice president, had clearly established that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela's president."
Rodriguez rose to prominence after Maduro became president in 2013, following the death of Hugo Chávez, founder of Venezuela's Bolivarian political movement, a blend of leftist and nationalist ideologies.
President Maduro initially appointed her communications minister and then Venezuela's first female foreign minister, and she continued her tour of Latin American capitals, engaging in debates with conservative leaders across the region.
She was promoted to vice president in 2018 and later became head of SEBIN, Venezuela's intelligence agency, leading a policy of reconciliation with Venezuela's business elite as Minister of Economy from a hard-line image in 2020.
The indictment, released by a New York court judge on the 3rd, charges Maduro with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. The four-count indictment includes his wife, son, two high-ranking Venezuelan officials, and the alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, an organization designated as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration last year.
The New York Times reported, “President Trump has said that Tren de Aragua is cooperating with the Maduro government, but U.S. intelligence agencies have disputed this.” The indictment alleges that Maduro and his allies have worked with major drug trafficking organizations for decades to smuggle large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
However, experts say Venezuela is not a major drug producer, but rather a small cocaine transit country, with most of the cocaine flowing to Europe, not the United States.” In fact, data from Colombia, the United States, and the United Nations suggest that most of the cocaine bound for the United States travels through the Pacific, not the Caribbean, and Venezuela has no Pacific coast. President Trump launched a military operation in Venezuela last September, claiming the campaign was “targeting the drugs that are killing Americans.”
However, experts say most U.S. overdoses are linked to fentanyl, which does not originate in South America. According to U.S. data, the fentanyl that causes tens of thousands of overdoses each year is produced almost entirely in Mexico using chemicals from China.
The New York Times reported that “authorities and Venezuela have no known role in the fentanyl trade, nor do other South American countries,” and that “the unsealed indictment focuses almost entirely on Venezuela’s decades-long role in the cocaine trade and accuses Maduro and his co-conspirators of working closely with the region’s largest drug trafficking organizations, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Sinaloa Cartel, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.”
The Trump administration's pressure campaign against Venezuela began in September with a deadly US military strike on a small vessel it said was transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States. Survivors immediately captured footage of the attack, confirming additional kills, and the Pentagon refused to release it.
The New York Times reported, "The Trump administration justified the strike by declaring that the United States was in armed conflict with drug cartels and would disrupt their trafficking networks. Many experts say the strike was illegal."
In May 2019, South Korea publicly expressed support for Guaidó during the failed right-wing parliamentary coup attempt to oust Chávez. Starting in 2012, China entered Venezuela's crude oil market, and the Venezuelan leftist Chavez government became a member of the South American Common Market (Mercosur) due to the South American leftist solidarity, leading the South American leftist solidarity. The United States responded to the South American Common Market (a free trade organization of four South American countries) of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, which was the first sign of the South American leftist solidarity, by attempting to oust the leftist president in the congressional right-wing forces supported by the United States. This led to a pro-US coup in Paraguay in June 2012, which resulted in Uruguay losing its full membership in the Leftist Solidarity and Venezuela joining.
Earlier, Venezuelan National Assembly President Guaido called for a military uprising in a video filmed with armed forces at an air force base in Caracas, the capital, on May 1, the day before Labor Day, and led large-scale anti-government protests on Labor Day, but failed to take over the government.
Trump's Vice President Mike Pence expressed his support on Twitter at the time, saying, "To President Guaidó, the Venezuelan National Assembly, and all the freedom-loving Venezuelans taking to the streets today: We stand with you. The United States will stand with you until freedom and democracy are restored."
Vice President Pence attempted to engage with North Korea while attending the PyeongChang Olympics.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director who secretly visited Pyongyang and met with Chairman Kim Jong--un, tweeted at the time, "Today, Interim President Juan Guaido announced the launch of 'Operation Freedom.' The U.S. government fully supports the Venezuelan people's pursuit of freedom and democracy."
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated on the 4th, "The U.S. hegemonic actions in Venezuela constitute the most severe form of infringement on sovereignty," adding, "We strongly condemn this as a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international law, which fundamentally establish respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and territorial integrity."
North Korea and Venezuela established diplomatic relations in 1974.
The "North Korea-U.S. summit," which the Lee Jae-myung administration is pushing for starting in April, appears unlikely, and the buildup of nuclear weapons in Northeast Asia is expected to accelerate.
During Trump's first term, a right-wing parliamentary coup attempt in Venezuela and a strategy to 'create prosperous North Koreans like South Korea' were attempted in North Korea with the support of the Moon Jae-in regime through the North Korea-US summit.
In Trump's second term, he simultaneously pursued a leftist regime change strategy in Venezuela and attempted to instill capitalism in North Korea by pressuring the North Korean regime to increase its military spending, but North Korea appears to have rejected this approach.
See <Lee Jae-myung's 'Taiwan Peace', Chung Dong-young's 'DPRK', Trump's High Praise, 'US Election Support', January 3, 2026>
<Trump's Imperial Presidency, Lee Jae-myung Regime, 'April North Korea-US Summit', Election Support, December 22, 2025>
<International Tensions Raised by Failed Pro-US Coup in Venezuela, May 3, 2019>
<From Longtime Friend to Strife in Venezuela: Rubio's 'Elimination of Cuba', December 21, 2025>