How Trump Fixed On a Maduro Loyalist as Venezuela’s New Leader

 

How Trump Fixed On a Maduro Loyalist as Venezuela’s New Leader

 

Nicolás Maduro balked at a gilded exile. U.S. officials then saw a more pliant option in his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, known for stabilizing Venezuela’s economy.

 

By Anatoly Kurmanaev Tyler Pager Simon Romero and Julie Turkewitz

Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela, and Tyler Pager from Palm Beach, Fla.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/world/americas/trump-venezuela-leader-rodriguez-machado.html

Jan. 4, 2026

Updated 10:22 a.m. ET

 

It was one dance move too many for Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.

 

Mr. Maduro in late December rejected an ultimatum from President Trump to leave office and go into a gilded exile in Turkey, according to several Americans and Venezuelans involved in transition talks.

 

This week he was back onstage, brushing off the latest U.S. escalation — a strike on a dock that the United States said was used for drug trafficking — by bouncing to an electronic beat on state television while his recorded voice repeated in English, “No crazy war.”

 

Mr. Maduro’s regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff, according to two of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the confidential discussions.

 

So the White House decided to follow through on its military threats.

 

On Saturday, an elite U.S. military team swooped into Caracas, the capital, in a pre-dawn raid and whisked Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

 

Weeks earlier, U.S. officials had already settled on an acceptable candidate to replace Mr. Maduro, at least for the time being: Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who had impressed Trump officials with her management of Venezuela’s crucial oil industry.

 

The people involved in the discussions said intermediaries persuaded the administration that she would protect and champion future American energy investments in the country.

 

“I’ve been watching her career for a long time, so I have some sense of who she is and what she’s about,” said one senior U.S. official, referring to Ms. Rodríguez.

 

“I’m not claiming that she’s the permanent solution to the country’s problems, but she’s certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with him,” the official added, referring to Mr. Maduro.

 

It was an easy choice, the people said. Mr. Trump had never warme