{"id":389692,"date":"2026-01-05T19:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389692\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:34:12","slug":"most-of-nicolas-maduros-inner-circle-remain-in-venezuela-including-others-wanted-by-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389692\/","title":{"rendered":"Most of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro’s inner circle remain in Venezuela, including others wanted by the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife were arraigned Monday in New York<\/a> on federal drug trafficking and other charges following their capture in a dramatic U.S. military operation over the weekend. But virtually all of the ousted leader’s inner circle \u2014 including some with whom he’s accused of running a cartel<\/a> that has allegedly smuggled tons of cocaine into the U.S. \u2014 remain in their posts.<\/p>\n

The U.S., along with many Venezuelans and other nations, believe the election in Venezuela last year<\/a> was actually won decisively by the party of\u00a02025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado<\/a>, a longtime leader of the country’s persecuted political opposition. Maduro declared victory despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud and intimidation.<\/p>\n

But Machado has lived in exile for many months, and her current location wasn’t clear on Monday. She appeared to have been largely snubbed by Mr. Trump in his immediate plans for Venezuela, with the U.S. leader saying she lacks the popular support to be installed as a new head of government.<\/p>\n

Machado voiced optimism in a statement on Monday that she and “the brave people of Venezuela” would soon enjoy freedom and “celebrate on our land.” But for now, the people holding the guns and ostensibly running the country are not her supporters, but Nicol\u00e1s Maduro’s.<\/p>\n

\"VENEZUELA-ELECTION-VOTE-AFTERMATH-MADURO<\/p>\n

Then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (center) speaks next to First Lady Cilia Flores (2nd R), Vice President Delcy Rodriguez (R), Venezuelan deputy Diosdado Cabello (L), and the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez (3rd L), during a rally at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, July 30, 2024.<\/p>\n

RAUL ARBOLEDA\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

Below is a look at some of the most senior members of the Maduro regime who remain in Caracas \u2014 and in the case of at least one, have just got a promotion.<\/p>\n

Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/p>\n

The most senior member of Maduro’s inner circle untouched by the U.S. attacks and raid over the weekend is probably the country’s former Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, who was sworn in<\/a> on Monday as the new interim president, taking the reins from her longtime political mentor.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old has long been seen as a loyal confidant and protege of the now-deposed Venezuelan leader, and a member of a cadre accused by Washington for many years of helping Maduro maintain his authoritarian grip on power.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t clear on Monday if Rodr\u00edguez and the Trump administration could find a way to work together, and thus whether she could remain in power to some degree following Mr. Trump’s assertion that the United States would “run” Venezuela for some unspecified period.<\/p>\n

\"VENEZUELA-US-DIPLOMACY-CONFLICT<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s then-Vice President Delcy Rodriguez (C) and her brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez (R) arrive for a meeting with diplomatic representatives in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

JUAN BARRETO\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump warned over the weekend that if Rodr\u00edguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”<\/p>\n

Diosdado Cabello<\/p>\n

Another stalwart of the Maduro regime is\u00a0Diosdado Cabello<\/a>, who currently serves as Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, giving him oversight of the country’s police and prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cabello previously served as vice president, and for many years as president of the country’s parliament. He also spent years in command of Venezuelan intelligence services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like Maduro, he was indicted on criminal charges in the United States, accused of helping to traffic more than 5 tons of cocaine to the U.S.<\/p>\n

In 2020, he was among those charged<\/a> with various federal drugs and weapons offenses in an indictment filed in the same Southern District of New York that was handling Maduro’s arraignment on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"AP163672421981.jpg<\/p>\n

National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, right, gestures to supporters as then-Vice President Nicolas Maduro, left, looks on after a session by lawmakers at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 5, 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AP\/Fernando Llano<\/p>\n

The indictment names Cabello as a senior figure in the Cartel del los Soles, which Maduro is accused of leading.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n

Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez, currently serving as Venezuela’s Minister of Defense, is also accused<\/a> of direct involvement in trafficking drugs into the U.S.<\/p>\n

The U.S. accuses him of allowing the safe passage of commercial flights carrying illegal drugs, and of collecting a protection fee for doing so, and he was indicted<\/a> in a federal court in Washington D.C. in 2020.<\/p>\n

Jorge Rodr\u00edguez<\/p>\n

The new interim president’s brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, has served as President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, the country’s Maduro-controlled legislature, since 2021. He’s also considered a key figure in the regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My main function in the days to come… as president of this National Assembly, will be to resort to all procedures, all platforms, and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president,” Jorge Rodriguez told lawmakers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Just like his sister, Rodr\u00edguez has been\u00a0sanctioned<\/a> by the U.S. Treasury over his alleged role in undermining democracy in Venezuela and propping up Maduro’s authoritarian regime. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s “Nicolasito” Ernesto Maduro Guerra<\/p>\n

One of Maduro’s sons, along with his mother Cilia, who was arraigned with her husband in New York on Monday, was also charged in 2020 with drug offenses relating to the Cartel de los Soles.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Ernesto Maduro Guerra, 35, known in the country as Nicolasito, or Little Nicol\u00e1s, is currently the deputy president of the legislature. He is also sometimes referred to as “The Prince” in the country.<\/p>\n

\"VENEZUELA-US-DIPLOMACY-CONFLICT<\/p>\n

Deputy president of the Venezuelan National Assembly Nicolas Maduro Guerra, son of President Nicolas Maduro, attends a National Council for Sovereignty and Peace event at the Hotel Eurobuilding in Caracas, Oct. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

FEDERICO PARRA\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. indictment, the younger Maduro partnered with his father, other senior officials and “narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups, who dispatched processed cocaine from Venezuela to the United States via transshipment points in the Caribbean and Central America.”<\/p>\n

U.S. Strikes Venezuela
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\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife were arraigned Monday in New York on federal drug trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,189272,12,3,18231,21,19,22,20,25,24,18232],"class_list":["post-389692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-delcy-rodrguez","tag-donald-trump","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}