The quiet ascent: How Delcy Rodríguez took over Venezuela’s criminal networks

Miami Herald ^ | January 21, 2026 | Antonio María Delgado

[Miami Rebel]

On a March 2023 afternoon in Caracas, the corridors of power in Venezuela’s government were shifting beneath the surface. Tareck El Aissami, once the regime’s top power broker and a man long accused by Washington of narcotics trafficking, had vanished from public view. His fall created a dangerous void in the structure that sustained Venezuela’s authoritarian system. Into that vacuum stepped Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s vice president, former foreign minister and a central figure in the regime’s inner family circle... Rodríguez quietly assumed control of the networks El Aissami once managed—networks that U.S. officials and investigative reports have linked to state-sanctioned corruption, gold smuggling and drug trafficking across the Caribbean. Her ascent, however, did not come as a surprise to one man who says he watched the architecture of power inside Venezuela take shape from within. Responding to a questionnaire sent to him by the Miami Herald through his lawyer, retired Venezuelan Gen. Cliver Alcalá Cordones, who is serving a 21-year, eight-month sentence in the U.S., asserts that Delcy Rodríguez and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, have long been the real architects of Venezuela’s criminalized power structure. “That photo clearly shows us who holds the real power in Venezuela,” Alcalá wrote, referring to the image of Jorge Rodríguez being re-elected head of the National Assembly and swearing in his sister as acting president after Nicolás Maduro’s recent capture by U.S. forces. “They are the true architects of the Venezuelan dictatorial regime.” Alcalá’s claims, which are disputed by the Venezuelan government, echo and amplify what U.S. intelligence assessments, investigative reporting, and years of U.S. sanctions enforcement have increasingly suggested: that before Maduro was captured in a U.S. pre-dawn raid, Venezuela’s center of gravity had shifted away from the strongman and toward a disciplined, family-run network operating largely out of sight.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: venezuela

[Miami Rebel]

I don't Venezuela will come to heel without a US military presence, and a sizable one.

[Kazan]

Who wants to risk American lives and nation build in Venezuela?

[Seruzawa]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

[Navy Patriot]

The quiet ascent: How Delcy Rodríguez took over Venezuela’s criminal networks - The Miami Herald

A small part of Western Mainstream Media Fesses up, what took 'em so long?

[No name given]

Especially after the fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan!

[No name given]

That may be correct sadly.

[Miami Rebel]

“A small part of Western Mainstream Media Fesses up”

What are you pontificating about?

The Miami Herald has had superb coverage of Venezuela for years.

[Miami Rebel]

“A small part of Western Mainstream Media Fesses up”

What are you pontificating about?

The Miami Herald has had superb coverage of Venezuela for years.

[Miami Rebel]

“A small part of Western Mainstream Media Fesses up”

What are you pontificating about?

The Miami Herald has had superb coverage of Venezuela for years.

[Miami Rebel]

“A small part of Western Mainstream Media Fesses up”

What are you pontificating about?

The Miami Herald has had superb coverage of Venezuela for years.

[Miami Rebel]

A good question. Venezuela has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of hardliners who aren’t going anywhere save at the muzzle of a gun.

[Rockingham]

The alternative is to tolerate a bad regime but use US power to limit its burden on the US and the region. That is more or less what we did with Cuba. Eventually, time and the mortality of bad rulers will undo the Venezuelan regime.

[Midwesterner53]

Trump’s love affairs with despots like this woman and Putin are a great mystery. He talks hard action and does nothing.

[Salvavida]

One fastball through her bedroom window. And she knows it.

[Albion Wilde]

Can anyone explain why Trump is “holding his friend Delcy close” at this time? I get that we don’t want more nation-building. But why not occupy until there can be a relatively clean election?

[Robert DeLong]

We were not going to be responsible for regime change, at least not openly. Instead, we just brought a fugitive to justice, and that fugitive just happened to be the person who stole the election from soneone who was the rightful winner that the world ackowledges is the reality. In that mission we showed the leaders which includes that Delcy Rodríguez, her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, along with all of their family what our military is capable of doing. They are all on notice, and the warning is change or face further examples of what the U.S.A. is capable of bringing to the leaders of this nation, Venezuela. She was the Vice President so it was natural to have her ascend to be Venzuela's President.

She was so freaked out that she presented Trump with her 18-carat recycled gold metal that features Alfred Nobel on the front, with a unique design on the reverse for the Peace Prize created by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. Trump accepted it garciously, but that was to put a happy face on it for public cosumption. Behind the scences, he reminder her that we are watchinging her closely, and like Iran, warned her that tracking down and either imprisoing or killing those who celebrated what took place, they would see more of the same, only on larger scale.

[marron]

It was Maria Machado who gave him her Nobel. The same day she met with Trump, John Ratcliff the CIA director was in Caracas meeting with Delsy giving her the marching orders.

[Robert DeLong]

I stand corrected, you are abolutely righ, and I didn't even need to confirm it. But she is on notice.

Thanks for correcting my error. 😁👍