She assumes the head of state position after years of consolidating her position on the front lines of politics and economics
The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the attack launched Saturday by the United States against the South American country has led to the rise of the now former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to the position of “acting president.” Rodríguez previously held positions during Hugo Chávez’s presidency and has consolidated her position in recent years as one of the main figures in Venezuelan politics.
Rodríguez, born in Caracas in 1969, is the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, founder of the Marxist Socialist League party, who died in 1976 from torture suffered while in custody after being arrested months earlier for the kidnapping of William Niehous, the local president of an American company.
She is also the sister of Jorge Rodríguez, a politician and psychiatrist who has been president of the National Assembly—the parliament—since 2021 and who was Chávez’s vice president between 2007 and 2008, as well as president of the National Electoral Council between 2005 and 2006 and Maduro’s Minister of Communication between 2017 and 2020.
She obtained a law degree after studying at the Central University of Venezuela, after which she became involved in politics following the attempted coup against Chávez in 2002, a time when she was in London. She and her mother even locked themselves in the Venezuelan Embassy to protest against the coup attempt.
Rodríguez, who has stated in the past that she studied law because of her father’s death at the hands of the authorities, began her political career in 2003, when she joined the General Coordination of the Vice Presidency of Venezuela, after which she became director of International Affairs at the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Subsequently, in February 2006, she was appointed by Chávez as Minister of the Presidency, a position she held for only a few months before resigning amidst reports of disagreements with the then-president, who died in 2013 from cancer shortly after winning re-election in the December 2012 elections.
POLITICAL RISE UNDER MADURO’S LEADERSHIP
In fact, it wasn’t until Maduro came to power following Chávez’s death—whose term he initially completed on an interim basis and later after winning the April 2013 elections against opposition leader Henrique Capriles—that Rodríguez began to rise politically, eventually becoming considered the president’s “right-hand woman.”
Her first government position was as Minister of Communication and Information, a portfolio she headed between August 2013 and October 2014, after which she became Minister of Foreign Affairs, leading Venezuelan diplomacy from December 2014 to June 2017, a period in which she had a very high profile and visibility.
Rodríguez was also chosen to head the National Constituent Assembly, created amidst the dispute between the government and the opposition following the opposition’s victory in the December 2015 National Assembly elections, in which the PSUV lost control of the body for the first time in 16 years.
The growing disputes between the legislature and the executive, including an attempt to collect signatures to initiate a process that would lead to Maduro’s removal, did not subside with talks between the government and the opposition. Tensions reached their peak in May 2017, when the Supreme Court dissolved the National Assembly. Finally, protests over the political crisis and the lack of a negotiated solution led Maduro to convene a Constituent Assembly in May, whose elections were boycotted by the opposition—allowing the president’s allies to completely dominate the new body—after which the United States responded with sanctions against the Venezuelan president.
It was precisely at the head of the National Constituent Assembly that her position was consolidated, especially because, at least in theory, the body had more power than the Presidency itself, as it was considered a supraconstitutional body.
VICE PRESIDENT AND MEETING WITH ÁBALOS
Maduro took another step in consolidating Rodríguez’s position by appointing her in 2018 as vice president of the South American country, after the president secured a second term in elections boycotted by the main opposition parties and with a 46 percent turnout.
While holding this position, the incident known in Spain as ‘Delcygate’ erupted, when she met with former minister José Luis Ábalos at Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport in January 2020, despite being banned from entering the Schengen Area by the European Union (EU) due to her alleged role in “violations of human rights and democracy” in Venezuela.
The case, which generated controversy in Spain, was finally dismissed by the Provincial Court of Madrid, which found no crime had been committed and considered that, although Delcy was at the airport, which could have constituted a violation of the aforementioned European Council ban, the meeting with Ábalos did not constitute a crime of malfeasance attributable to the then minister.
During this time, she became one of Maduro’s key political operators, attending international meetings as Venezuela’s representative, such as the summit between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Brussels in 2023.
Rodríguez met with former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Maduro to address the crisis in the country—within the framework of the former president’s mediation efforts—a trip that Madrid described as a visit to Venezuela “in his capacity as a private citizen” and “without any representative role.”
She accumulated even more responsibilities in September 2020 when she was appointed Minister of Economy, Finance, and Foreign Trade, while in August 2024—after new controversial elections—she took over the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, a position of great importance in managing the Venezuelan economy, which is highly dependent on oil exports.
US ATTACK AND RESPONSIBILITY AS ACTING PRESIDENT
The now former Venezuelan vice president, who has also been under US sanctions since 2018—when the Treasury Department imposed measures against her, her brother, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, and First Lady Cilia Flores—for alleged human rights violations, has had to assume the position of “acting president” following Maduro’s capture. This step comes after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) affirmed that Rodríguez should assume the head of state position due to the “forced absence” of Maduro, who was arrested along with Flores during the aforementioned US military operation.
The Venezuelan Constitution, in articles 233 and 234, stipulates that the temporary or permanent absence of a president means that the vice president assumes their duties, which Rodríguez has now done amidst warnings from US President Donald Trump to comply with Washington’s demands.
Trump himself surprised many in his first press conference after the attack on Venezuela by discrediting opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, stating that she lacks sufficient support in the country, and opening the door to cooperation on his terms with Rodríguez, who is considered a more pragmatic figure than Maduro. The new interim president has asserted Venezuela’s “right to peace” and invited the United States “to work together on a cooperation agenda,” while also creating a commission to try to secure Maduro’s release.
