After President Donald Trump made global shockwaves by capturing and extraditing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, thoughts inevitably turned to Maduro’s successor. That role quickly landed at the feet of Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, who’s currently serving as Venezuela’s interim president in the wake of the country’s power vacuum. She has been a mainstay in Venezuelan politics, but her role as Venezuela’s de facto leader could prove significantly more challenging.

Rodríguez’s beginnings

She was an attorney before entering politics and then “began her political career in 2003, during the reign of former President Hugo Chávez,” said Time. Under Chávez, who served as president from 1999 until 2013, Rodríguez climbed the ranks and “served in many roles, including as vice-minister for European affairs and general coordinator to the vice president of Venezuela.” When the authoritarian Maduro took over in 2013, he “appointed Rodríguez as minister of communication” before appointing her vice president in 2018.

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In 2017, Maduro praised Rodríguez, saying she had “defended Venezuelan sovereignty, peace and independence like a tiger,” according to Reuters. But like Maduro himself, who was reelected several times following contested elections, Rodríguez has “faced sanctions from several countries and is currently banned from neighboring Colombia,” said Time. The United States, Canada, Switzerland and the European Union have all sanctioned Rodríguez for her “role in undermining Venezuelan democracy,” said the AP.

‘A deeply uncertain future’

As interim president, Rodríguez will likely face an uphill battle, given that the majority of the Western world, including the U.S., did not recognize the Maduro administration as legitimate. Despite this, Rodríguez has “been backed thus far as the nation's new leader by Venezuela's military,” said CBS News. Following Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez lambasted the Trump administration, saying that Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president” and that the military operation had “Zionist undertones.”

Soon after this, though, Rodríguez seemed to change her tone, saying she was “moving toward balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela” in a social media post. But Trump maintains that the United States will run Venezuela’s government in Maduro’s absence, though it is “not clear how the U.S. expects to be in charge of Venezuela,” said NPR. The U.S. has not had a diplomatic embassy in Venezuela since 2019, and despite Trump’s wishes, his “administration may have limited influence on what happens inside the country.”

This will likely leave the happenings in Venezuela to Rodríguez, and the “country’s roughly 30 million people face a deeply uncertain future in the wake of President Trump’s actions,” said CBS. It remains unclear “how much autonomy Washington will allow the country,” though Rodríguez and Trump have reportedly been in contact, with Trump pushing for pro-U.S. policies. If Rodríguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said to The Atlantic, though he did not elaborate on this threat.

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