How Venezuela’s New Leader Allegedly Greenlit Maduro’s Arrest

Exclusive new reporting by the Guardian reveals that before the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, his Vice President and successor, Delcy Rodríguez, along with her powerful brother Jorge Rodríguez, secretly assured U.S. and Qatari officials that they would welcome Maduro’s departure and cooperate with the aftermath.

According to sources, these backchannel communications, which began in the fall of 2025, involved Delcy Rodríguez explicitly stating “Maduro needs to go” and pledging that she would “work with whatever is the aftermath,” a critical assurance for U.S. officials whose primary goal was to prevent Venezuela from collapsing into chaos or civil war.

While the Rodríguez siblings did not agree to actively help topple Maduro, their promise not to resist paved the way for a stable transition, with key Trump aides like Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly coming to see this as the best path forward.

The revelation, confirmed by Trump’s own public hint that he had spoken to Rodríguez “numerous times,” exposes the deep internal fractures within the Maduro regime and the complex, pre-arranged diplomatic understandings that shaped the dramatic change in power.