‘15 minutes to respond or die’: Leaked audio details aftermath of Maduro’s capture by US

A newly leaked audio recording has shed dramatic light on the chaotic period following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in early January. In the clip, Delcy Rodríguez, who was vice president at the time and now serves as Venezuela’s interim president, claims that US troops gave her and other senior officials an ultimatum in the immediate aftermath of the operation. “They gave us 15 minutes to respond, or they would kill us,” Rodríguez says in the audio of a meeting held about a week after Maduro’s capture.

The audio, which local journalists first reported and which has circulated online, appears to show high-ranking Venezuelan leaders scrambling to assert control of the narrative following one of the most explosive episodes in the country’s recent history.

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‘Threats from the first minute’

In the recording, Rodríguez says the threats from US forces began “from the very first minute they kidnapped the president.” She names fellow officials Diosdado Cabello and her brother Jorge Rodríguez—both powerful figures in Venezuelan politics—as those who were told they had to decide quickly whether to accede to Washington’s demands.

Rodríguez also claimed that US forces initially told them that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been killed, not captured. “We were ready to share the same fate,” she says, before outlining her beliefs about the constant pressure and “blackmail” faced by the leadership in the wake of the operation.

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In the leaked meeting, Rodríguez describes her priorities as “to preserve peace … to rescue our hostages … and to preserve political power.” She characterises the situation as one of intense uncertainty, where urgent decisions had to be made quickly under pressure.

The recording, reportedly obtained by Venezuelan news collective La Hora de Venezuela, shows the fears within the regime about being portrayed as traitors for cooperating with the US, and the broader challenge of maintaining unity among Chávez-era stalwarts. Firstpost could not independently verifiy the audio’s authenticity.