One has been on the DEA’s radar for years and in 2022 it was classified as a “priority target” for the United States. The other has led the crusade to obtain international support for the cause of democracy in Venezuela. The first has been subject to US sanctions for corruption and human rights violations. The other has just received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, Donald Trump’s speech about Venezuela has oscillated between direct threat and pragmatism, with two female figures in the center: the official Delcy Rodríguez and the opposition leader María Corina Machado. For both leaders, the support of the president of the United States is essential, from the perspective of lifting economic sanctions or even extracting other members of the regime who face charges in the United States.
“Trump uses Delcy as a means” to an objective
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After the military operation in Caracas, Trump announced that the United States would “administer” the Latin American country until a “safe” transition and presented Rodríguez as interim president “willing” to collaborate with that plan. He described Rodríguez as “someone with whom we have worked very well” and assured that they were “getting along very well with her.”
Regarding this, Diego Arria, former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of Caracas, is very critical and assures that the president’s statements generate more uncertainty than certainty about the possibility of a democratic transition. “Trump’s speech about Delcy Rodríguez clearly indicates that he does not know her at all and that they have presented her to him as the institutional medium for being the vice president, although they know that she is a fundamental part of the power structure of Venezuela,” he points out.
In just a month, Trump has balanced the rhetoric toward Rodríguez from calls announced as positive to a warning tone. In a telephone interview with The Atlantic, Trump even stated that, if the president “does not do the right thing,” she could “pay a very big price, probably greater than Maduro.” This language of punishment and control over the destiny of foreign leaders fits with the confrontational style that the Republican has exhibited in other foreign policy scenarios.
Arria assures that Trump “has put aside the reality that Delcy Rodríguez fully embodies” and “he intends to use it for the next few months, without forgetting what she and her brother represent.”
“Fear continues to dominate the space. Not a single Venezuelan came out to celebrate the capture of the mature drug tyrant for fear of being arrested,” Arria recalls.
In this context of fear and expectation that is experienced behind closed doors, the White House is betting on the idea of stabilizing the oil sector in an alliance with the regime, which has served to underline US interests in “oil, minerals, trade and security” and reinforce the idea that Washington intends to protect Venezuelan reconstruction.
Carlos Sanchez Berzaín, director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, for his part, affirms that Trump’s maneuver is strategic and that “the United States seeks to dismantle the dictatorship, using its own gangsters.”
For the political scientist, Washington is working in two parallel situations, “the first is the installation of control of the dictatorship that is carried out through Laura Dogu, the chargé d’affaires that he has sent to Caracas” and who already met with Rodríguez on Monday, and “the other hand is the restitution of democracy with María Corina Machado.”
Machado represents the restitution of democracy
The discursive treatment of María Corina Machado has, however, been markedly ambivalent by the US. After years of rhetorical support for the Venezuelan opposition, Trump has described her in recent weeks as a figure “without sufficient support” to lead the country. But, on the other hand, he received her at a large lunch at the White House on January 15, a gesture that he has not made with any leader on the side of the Maduro regime. That day, he appeared in the media telling the admiration he feels for Machado and how amazed he was with the action of the opposition leader, who presented him with the Nobel Peace medal received in 2025.
In this sense, Arria assures that “Trump has tried to ignore the importance of María Corina Machado, thinking that for his economic rescue plan it is easier to deal with a threatened Delcy Rodríguez than with a woman who has 90% of popular support.”
“Trump believes that managing economic changes with such a representative person is more difficult. That is why he prefers the threatened Delcy,” he adds.
Sanchez Berzaín, on the contrary, affirms that the US president “recognizes the leadership of María Corina and does not keep her on the sidelines” but that “a process of incorporation is taking place in which Machado is making an intelligent strategy.” In the near future, he highlights, “this will advance on a path in which the Venezuelan people are represented in this process by María Corina Machado, who is the undisputed leader.”
In this way, there are two circumstances, “the dictatorship that is dying, on the verge of disappearing, at the hands of Delcy Rodríguez, and the democracy that must prevail in María Corina Machado.” In his words: “A world that dies and another that resurfaces.”
The result is a power map in which the White House projects Delcy Rodríguez as an uncomfortable but necessary partner to guarantee stability, while reducing Machado to the role of a relevant but not decisive interlocutor in the design of the transition, at least in the short term.
“Only a true transition can ensure stability. Freedom is not a second-rate piece, as it seems to Trump, and reality will prove it. Underestimating a people that has 26 years of tyranny is a very big mistake,” Arria emphasizes.
The combination of public threats and cautious praise for Rodríguez, along with the opening of formal channels with the latter, reflects a strategy that prioritizes immediate governability and the defense of US economic interests and the demand for an agile, but controlled, even uncomfortable transition, which marks a unique historical moment for Venezuelans.
Chronology: Trump over Delcy Rodríguez
- January 3 – Announcement after Maduro’s capture
In the press conference where he announces the capture of Nicolás Maduro and affirms that the United States will “manage” Venezuela until a “safe, adequate and prudent” transition, Trump mentions that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez will be sworn in as interim president and that she is “basically willing to do what we consider necessary to return Venezuela to greatness,” according to later chronicles and fact-checks. This is a televised appearance from the White House on the afternoon of January 3. - January 4 – Warning of “paying a very high price”
In a telephone interview with the magazine The Atlanticcollected by Reuters, CNBC and other media, Trump warns that Delcy Rodríguez could “pay a very big price, probably greater than Maduro” if “she does not do the right thing.” The call comes as the president heads to his golf club in West Palm Beach. - January 9 – After meeting with oil representatives
Trump assures, after the meeting with oil representatives, that Rodríguez’s group, for the moment, seems to “be an ally” of Washington and that it will probably “continue to be so.”
“At this moment it seems to be an ally, and I think it will continue to be. And we don’t want Russia to be there. We don’t want China to be there (in Venezuela),” he declared after the meeting to discuss the reconstruction of the crude oil industry in Venezuela. He also adds: “They were smart. They didn’t want to go through a second wave of attacks.”
- January 14–15 – Turn toward praise and cooperation
On January 14, on the eve of receiving the opposition, Trump declared to the press that Delcy Rodríguez is someone with whom he has “worked very well. “She is a great person, we worked very well with her. “We are getting along very well,” the president of the United States said then. That same day or the next day he had a phone call with Rodríguez about “oil, minerals, trade and security”, which he later presented on social networks as “very positive”, according to the summary of a video by The Economic Times. - January 16 – Why align with Delcy Rodríguez?
In an informal exchange with reporters outside the White House, before traveling to Florida, a journalist asks him why “align with Delcy Rodríguez instead of María Corina Machado.” The American president responds: “Well, if you ever remember a place called Iraq, where everyone was fired—all the people, the police, the generals, everyone was fired—and they ended up being ISIS. Instead of getting down to business, they ended up being ISIS. So that’s what I remember.” The analogy serves to justify maintaining the structures of the Chavista regime in order to avoid a power vacuum or collapse that generates chaos.
- January 29 – Reopening of Venezuelan airspace
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Thursday that commercial air connections with Venezuela will soon be reopened, after having a conversation with the interim president of the Caribbean country, Delcy Rodríguez, but without giving more details about the call.
Chronology: Trump on María Corina Machado
In parallel, there are fewer direct interventions about María Corina Machado, but there are some milestones:
- January 3–4, 2026 – On the ability to govern
In the initial coverage of the operation against Maduro, Trump maintains that Washington will “run” Venezuela and affirms that María Corina Machado “does not have the support or respect within the country.” Al Jazeera and other media cite the idea that, in Trump’s eyes, Machado would not be the natural successor to Maduro or Rodríguez. - January 4, 2026 – Criticism of its suitability
A video from Al Jazeera Newsfeed summarizes that Trump describes María Corina Machado as “unfit” to govern Venezuela and questions whether she is the right person to lead the country at this time, despite her international profile and the fact that she has received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025. - January 15, 2026 – Meeting at the White House and presentation of the Nobel medal
On January 15, Trump receives María Corina Machado at the White House for a working lunch. In a social media post about the meeting, Trump thanked Machado for giving him “his Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done.” He added that it was “a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
- January 16 – “A person I admire a lot”
In the informal exchange with reporters outside the White House, on January 15, and after making an analogy between Maduro’s departure with the post-Saddam Husseim era (where the dissolution of the Iraqi army by Paul Bremer favored ISIS), Trump speaks about Machado: “I’ll tell you, yesterday I had a great meeting with a person who I respect a lot, and she obviously respects me and our country, and she gave me her Nobel Prize. I had never met her before, and I was very impressed. “She is a great woman.”
| Date | Scenery | About Delcy Rodríguez | About María Corina Machado |
| January 3 | Press conference in Washington after Maduro’s capture. | He presents her as interim president, “willing” to do what is necessary to “return greatness” to Venezuela, although she later denounces the “brutal aggression.” | He keeps the opposition as the central axis of the transition out of his speech. |
| January 4 | Interview with The Atlantic. | He warns that if he “does not do the right thing,” “he will pay a very big price, probably greater than Maduro,” marking a direct threat to his leadership. | In parallel, television analyzes attribute the idea that Machado is not ready to govern and “does not have the support” necessary in the country yet as part of the transition strategy. |
| January 14 | Conference before Machado’s visit. | Trump says of Delcy: “He’s someone we’ve worked very well with.” “We’re getting along very well with her,” he says, suggesting a pragmatic working relationship. | At the same time, he makes it known that his main bet is the stability agreed with Rodríguez; Experts point out that he continues to see her as a secondary figure. |
| January 14–15 | Trump–Rodríguez phone call and subsequent publication on networks and TV. | Trump writes online that the call was “very positive” and that they talked about “oil, minerals, trade and security” to “help Venezuela stabilize and recover.” | No opposition factor is mentioned. |
| January 15 | Lunch and meeting at the White House with Machado. | He makes an analogy between the post-Maduro era and Iraq to indicate that the transition must be controlled and avoid a hypothetical collapse. | He welcomes her widely in the White House and assures that he greatly admires and respects her. |
| January 15 | Exchange with reporters outside the White House. | Defends temporary alliance with Rodríguez to avoid chaos; recent quote called “positive.” | In the context of a question about why not prioritize her: “She is a great woman.” |
| January 29 | Comment on call with Delcy to open airspace. | He announces having spoken with Rodríguez to “reopen Venezuelan airspace” and for “all the airlines to come”; emphasizes “extraordinary progress” in aviation and tourism post-targeted sanctions. | Not mentioned directly; exclusive focus on cooperation with Caracas to “normalize” the economy. |
