Venezuela after Maduro: Leadership of the South American nation seems uncertain

This story by Global Voices Latin America originally appeared on Global Voices on January 7, 2026.

In the early morning of January 3, 2025, Venezuela lost a president and gained a new, uncertain chapter in its recent political history.

Between 1:50 and 4:00 a.m. local time, a series of explosions rocked several military and civilian spots in Caracas, the capital, and at least two other major cities in the South American country as part of a “large-scale strike” by American military forces. The operation was confirmed by U.S. President Donald Trump at 5:21 a.m. VST, on TruthSocial.

More than 40 civilians and military personnel, 32 of whom were Cuban, either died or were injured in the airstrikes, according to reports from The New York Times and an official announcement from the Cuban government. Press activities are highly restricted in Venezuela, making it difficult to verify information locally.

A culmination of escalating tensions

The military operation, codenamed Absolute Resolve, seized Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, inside Fuerte Tiuna, a major military compound in western Caracas. They were flown out of Venezuela at 4:20 a.m. local time. In New York, Maduro will face several criminal charges, among them “conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism,” in a case that has been pursued by the U.S. Justice Department since 2020, when the first indictment and a reward for his capture were announced. This was later reaffirmed — and the reward increased — under the Biden administration, followed by a second indictment published on January 3, 2025. Trump shared all this during a full press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence: “We’re gonna run the country” [Venezuela] until a “proper transition can take place.”

Prior to this, however, at 3:30 a.m. in Caracas, before details about the extraction were known, Venezuelan state media published a State of Emergency decree signed by Maduro, which condemned the “grave military aggression perpetrated by the current Government of the United States of America.” Other long-standing allies of the Maduro administration, including China and Russia, decried the military attack.

See Also: Power Shift in Venezuela After Maduro’s Capture, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez Appointed Interim President of the South American Nation

The operation came after a year of escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela, that ratcheted up through several key incidents based on the Trump administration's characterization of the Maduro regime as a drug cartel. U.S. actions in this regard included unprovoked bombings of alleged drug-smuggling vessels — most of them of Venezuelan origin — in the Caribbean Sea and, last November, the labeling of the so-called Cartel de los Soles, a drug cartel presumably connected to Maduro himself, as a Foreign Terror Organization (FTO).

By the evening of January 3, the Venezuelan Supreme Court, asserting that Maduro had been “kidnapped,” appointed Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as acting president. Given his “forced absence,” the tribunal ceded the presidency to Rodríguez without a time limit, based on Articles 243 and 249 of the Venezuelan Constitution.

Where are the voices of Venezuelan citizens?

Venezuela has, for more than a decade, grappled with a huge wave of emigration (almost eight million people, out of a population of 30 million), caused by a mix of challenging political, socioeconomic, and human rights push factors. Citizen voices include both the Venezuelan diaspora and those inside the country.

Those who remain within Venezuela have to deal with surveillance, state-wide digital censorship, and limitations to the press. As at the time of publication, the country has not been cut off from the internet, nor are there additional blockades. Available social media such as TikTok, Instagram and others are still being used by Venezuelan citizens. However, fact-checking citizen reports is key, given the limited access to public information. In addition, most of these are in Spanish, as English is not fluently spoken by the vast majority of Venezuelans.

Even with these challenges, it is notable how little time and space have been given to citizen voices from within Venezuela. Meanwhile, there are more than 1,000 people that remain illegally detained in state prisons, many held in harsh conditions and largely absent from public political discourse.

Local members of the Global Voices community saw long queues in local supermarkets and gas stations, with Caracas residents more worried about basic necessities like groceries. Since the airstrikes, there has been a huge sense of uncertainty and so far, no major gatherings or celebrations have been seen in the capital or other cities.

See Also: US Claims Capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro Following Explosions in Caracas

Who is Delcy Rodríguez?

Venezuela's now acting president was born in 1969, into a leftist family that was active in the Venezuelan guerrilla movement of the 1960s. The family is well entrenched in the country’s political life; Delcy became a lawyer and first joined the Hugo Chávez government in 2003, while her brother Jorge, a psychiatrist, is the current head of the Asamblea Nacional, the Venezuelan parliament.

After Chávez’s passing in 2013, Nicolás Maduro was elected president and Rodríguez began her rise through the ranks of the Venezuelan government, first as minister of information and communication and later, of foreign affairs. In 2018, she was appointed as Maduro’s vice president, a role that is not openly elected in Venezuela.

Rodríguez is now the first acting woman president in Venezuela since the country became a fully independent nation in 1811. She is a key political operator within Maduro’s inner circle, operating amid unresolved corruption scandals and ongoing UN investigations into torture and systematic repression that continue to place Venezuela under international scrutiny.

What about María Corina Machado?

The 2025 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, opposition leader María Corina Machado openly acknowledged and declared her support for the the Trump-led military operation in a social media post captioned “Venezolanos, llegó la hora de la Libertad” (Venezuela, the hour of freedom has arrived).

During Trump’s press conference however, the U.S. president dismissed Machado’s participation in the operation, despite her long-standing status as an ally of his administration and her widely recognized influence within the opposition — especially after she threw her support behind another candidate when she was barred from running. “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later struck a different tone, praising Machado’s leadership while underscoring the immediate political realities and the U.S. national interests shaping Washington’s approach in the “coming weeks.”

As Venezuela waits to see what is yet to come, The UK Guardian reported on January 6 that the acting government has begun to detain journalists and seize communication devices.

(SY)

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