 "Is Trump handing over Venezuela to ‘anti-American socialists’ he loathes?")
In a move that stunned both Washington and Caracas, Donald Trump’s dramatic capture of Nicolás Maduro has blown a hole right through Venezuela’s power structure. But instead of weakening socialism, it may have handed the spotlight to a new set of players, exactly the kind of “anti-American socialists” Trump has spent years condemning.
With Maduro now in US custody, attention has shifted to Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge. Together, they represent the smoother, more polished face of Venezuela’s Marxist project.
Born into the revolution
Rodríguez’s politics didn’t begin in an office. They were inherited. Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a Marxist guerrilla leader in the 1970s, infamous for his role in the kidnapping of American businessman William Niehous. His death in police custody later became a rallying symbol for the Chavista movement, which is a concoction of socialism, nationalism, and anti-US rhetoric.
That history matters. Trump may pride himself on taking on radical leftists, but he’s now dealing with someone whose entire family story is rooted in anti-imperialist struggle.
A family that runs the show
Delcy’s power is amplified by her older brother Jorge Rodríguez, Maduro’s chief political operator and the man many see as the brains behind the regime.
As head of the National Assembly, Jorge has quietly shaped strategy and messaging, helping the government survive years of economic chaos and political pressure.
Together, the siblings pulled off what once seemed impossible: they tamed runaway inflation and nudged oil production back toward one million barrels a day, even while US sanctions tightened the screws.
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View All“Maduro was the face of the crisis, not the brains behind the system,” a government official familiar with backchannel diplomacy told Firstpost.
“By removing him, the US hasn’t broken Chavismo, it’s made room for a younger, more disciplined leadership that knows how to stabilise the economy, talk to global markets, and push back against Washington without the theatrics,” the official added.
Trump’s gamble
Trump, of course, hasn’t softened his tone. He recently warned that if Delcy doesn’t cooperate, “she’s going to pay a very big price—probably bigger than Maduro.”
But behind the scenes, the story looks different. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly been in touch with her and later described her as “gracious.”
That’s the irony in all this. Trump may have taken down a strongman, only to clear the way for a sharper, English-speaking, more politically savvy socialist leadership.
Also worth recalling are the US’s earlier experiments with regime change. “If good sense prevails, the US will remember that it failed in both Iraq and Afghanistan when it opted to change entire regimes,” Madhu Bhalla, former professor at the Department of East Asian Studies, Delhi University, and former editor of India Quarterly, told Firstpost.
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