Since Nicolás Maduro was captured in an operation by US forces in Caracas, all eyes have been on the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. The spotlight on her increases after the Supreme Court ordered her to take over as "acting president." Below, what we know about the life, political career and position of the United States regarding who is expected to be the first female president of Venezuela, although as provisionally announced.

First modification: 01/04/2026 - 16:22 Last modification: 01/06/2026 - 14:08

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Qualified by Maduro as a “tiger” for her fierce defense of Chavismo, known as a lover of fashion, daughter of a guerrilla and head of several ministries since the era of Hugo Chávez. Delcy Rodríguez becomes the first female president of Venezuela, although on an interim basis, according to the order of the Supreme Court after the capture of the country's president.

According to article 234 of the Venezuelan Constitution, in the absence of the head of state and while a new president is elected, the Executive must be led by whoever holds the Vice Presidency.

Although US President Donald Trump noted that his country will control the Latin American nation “until there is a transition,” he also declared that he would not deploy troops there if Rodríguez “does what we want,” raising questions about whether Washington will allow Chavismo to continue in government with conditions.

Read alsoSupreme of Venezuela names Rodríguez as interim president; US lifts restrictions on Caribbean airspace

Rodríguez, the daughter of a questioned “revolutionary martyr”

Rodríguez was born in Caracas, on May 18, 1969, making him currently 56 years old. She is the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, considered a guerrilla, founder of the revolutionary Socialist League party in the 1970s.

His family's ideological influences have played a central role in his life and political career. This lawyer, graduated from the Central University of Venezuela, and lover of designer fashion, is known for her ironclad defense of the so-called socialism of the 21st century. A project that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union and promoted in Latin America by Hugo Chávez Frías.

Chavismo considers his father a “revolutionary martyr”, a man who was detained for the kidnapping of the American businessman, William Frank Niehous, general manager of the Owens Illinois glass processing company.

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Rodríguez's relationships with politics arose from his youth, after his father died in 1976 due to injuries he suffered in an operation by officials of the then Directorate of Police Intelligence Services (Disip).

Politics and family go hand in hand for Delcy Rodríguez. The until now vice president of the country, turned interim president, has worked for years in close collaboration with her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the National Assembly.

It is the country's unicameral legislative body that emerged as a result of the dissolution of the previous bicameral Congress, through the Constituent Assembly promoted by Chávez in 1999, from which Venezuela transformed the institutions and became a country where the division of powers does not exist. Chavismo has since been able to control the nation and extend its mandates for more than two decades, in the midst of a deep political, economic and social crisis, which has pushed millions of its citizens into one of the largest migratory waves in the region and the world.

Read alsoCocaine, corruption and machine guns: a look at the charges against Nicolás Maduro

From minister to interim president, the rise of Delcy Rodríguez

Delcy Rodríguez's first position in the Government dates back to 2006, when she served as a minister in the Office of the Presidency, under the mandate of Hugo Chávez, who began to lead Venezuela since 1999 and whose political power known as Chavismo has continued to control the country rich in oil reserves for more than 25 years.

Years later and with the country now under the command of Nicolás Maduro after the death of Chávez – on March 5, 2013 – Rodríguez rose rapidly in politics, holding the position of Minister of Communication and Information between 2013 and 2014. In this last year she began to serve as head of the Foreign Relations portfolio, until 2017.

For years he has shown himself to be a person loyal to Maduro. As an example of this, in 2017 he began to preside over a pro-government Constituent Assembly that further expanded the president's powers.

Her arrival to the Vice Presidency occurred in June 2018, when Maduro announced her appointment, describing her as "a young, brave, experienced woman, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and experienced in a thousand battles."

By August 2024, the then head of state incorporated the Ministry of Petroleum into Rodríguez's portfolio, where he was tasked with managing the escalation of United States sanctions on the country's most important industry.​

Rodríguez's positions as Minister of Finance and Petroleum, along with her position as vice president, have made her a central element of the Latin American nation's economic strategy and influential in the private sector. During his work, he has implemented orthodox economic policies in an attempt to combat extreme inflation.

Read alsoEscorted and handcuffed, Nicolás Maduro arrives in New York after being captured by the US.

How far will Rodríguez's exposed loyalty to Maduro go?

After the President of the United States, Donald Trump, assured in a press conference hours after Maduro's capture that his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has been in talks with Delcy Rodríguez, many questions arise about whether or not the Chavista leader would have negotiated with the White House about her permanence in the Venezuelan Government.

While referring to Rodríguez's swearing-in for his new position, Trump declared that he does not rule out the deployment of troops to Venezuelan soil. “We already did it last night,” he said in reference to the president's arrest, but asserted that he would not do it again if the now interim president “does what we want.”

Although the US president maintained that his country will control Venezuela “until there is a transition” and that it will do so together with a group, he did not specify who would make it up, despite insistent questions from the press, which is why questions are increasing about whether this group includes Chavismo and specifically Delcy Rodríguez.

Trump, in parallel, rejected a transition led by the leader of the Venezuelan opposition and recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, María Corina Machado. The Republican justified his position by pointing out that Machado “has no support” in her country, despite decades of work demanding the return of democracy, work that has led her to live underground due to the threats of Chavismo, especially after she managed to mobilize millions of citizens in the 2024 elections in which, according to the opposition, her representative Edmundo González Urrutia won against Maduro with 67% of the votes.

Although the opponents presented the minutes that, they claim, they collected directly from the voting stations and that they displayed on a virtual platform, the National Electoral Council, also controlled by the Government, declared Maduro's victory for a third consecutive term in the Executive, until 2031. A new mandate that he will now not be able to fulfill and that, for the moment, will be in charge of Delcy Rodríguez.

Despite Trump's claims, Rodríguez publicly declared that Nicolás Maduro remains the only president of Venezuela and demanded his release. An apparent contradiction compared to the American's words that put the magnifying glass on the next steps that the two parties will take. Will Chavismo continue in Venezuela without Maduro?

Read alsoBetween the transition and repression: possible scenarios for Venezuela after the capture of Maduro

With Reuters, EFE and local media

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