A report by the British newspaper The Guardian, published this Thursday (22), states that Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, maintained channels of dialogue with authorities in the United States and in Qatar before the capture of the then-president Nicolás Maduro.
According to the newspaper, both signaled willingness to manage the political scenario resulting from the deposition of the chavista leader.
According to the report, which cites at least four sources involved in the negotiations, Delcy and Jorge assured American and Qatari representatives that they would accept Maduro’s removal and would seek to avoid an escalation of instability in the country.
The conversations, according to the Guardian, began as early as September 2025 and extended even after a call between the U.S. president, Donald Trump, and Maduro, which occurred in November of last year.
One of the sources interviewed by the newspaper reported that, in December, Delcy Rodríguez had told American interlocutors that Maduro “had to go” and that she herself would handle the political effects of the change.
Nevertheless, according to the Guardian, the Rodríguez brothers would not have agreed to cooperate directly with the United States in a plan to oust the former president, limiting themselves to discussing the post-capture scenario.
The information comes days after the Reuters agency revealed that the Trump administration also maintained contacts with Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, months before the operation that resulted in Maduro’s capture, on January 3. According to Reuters, Cabello had been warned not to use security forces or militants from the governing party to repress the opposition.
Although also named in drug trafficking accusations made by the United States, Cabello was not targeted by the operation. The sources interviewed by the news agency say that the contacts began at the start of Trump’s administration, in 2025, and continued even after Maduro’s deposition.
In response, the minister denied any coordination. In a statement released by his ministry, Cabello stated that the Venezuelan government “categorically denies” the information, calling them false and as an attempt to suggest “secret talks of a conspiratorial nature.”
