In front of the main headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Caracas, the families of political prisoners shout, “They are all innocent, none of them are criminals!” They carry banners and overcome the fear that, for years, had led many to self-censor in the public sphere. If Chavismo is still standing, despite the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, what has changed to allow protest scenes like these to re-emerge these days?
Jorge Rodríguez, leader of the National Assembly of Venezuela and brother of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, had promised just five days after Maduro’s removal that the regime would release “a significant number of Venezuelan and foreign individuals” from the moment of the announcement.
However, the releases of Venezuelan nationals have occurred in dribs and drabs. The families are growing impatient. It’s understandable. They know that dark things happen behind the bars of socialism. Recently, a French citizen kidnapped by Chavismo confessed to having been sexually assaulted by a female police officer of the regime while being transported hooded in a car blaring reggaeton music. He ended up in the prison known as El Rodeo I.
Lieutenant José Ángel Barreno is another political prisoner currently held in El Rodeo I. His mother, Massiel Cordones, staged another protest on Tuesday. “Enough with so many lies, Jorge Rodríguez,” she declared. “If you stood up on January 8 to say that there would be releases, then fulfill your promise.”
Despite pressure from the Trump administration, what is hindering the releases seems to be the stubbornness of Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior and Human Rights (yes, you read that right, Human Rights). Some believe it’s because the prisoners are in such a deplorable state that it would be even more scandalous for the world to see them. Others believe that Cabello, accustomed to the power of the “colectivos,” the paramilitary groups that terrorize the population, is resisting complying with the White House’s orders.
These frictions within the Venezuelan government could cause it to implode. It seems that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s intention is to dismantle Chavismo by using Chavismo itself, weakening it through contradictions between different factions. He aims to pit those who cling to power, like Cabello and his associates, against those who fear a repeat of January 3rd. Prior to Maduro’s capture, did Rubio negotiate with the Delcy Rodríguez family to accept a transition toward changes in the system that would facilitate future democratization?
Some movements from those surrounding Miraflores Palace seem to indicate this. Just this week, Rodríguez met with the director of the CIA. What did they talk about? The reopening of the embassy in Caracas, drug trafficking issues, non-cooperation with Cuba, Iran, or Russia? The truth is that a visit of this kind, under Chavismo, had not occurred before Maduro’s capture.
Almost simultaneously, the acting president dismissed Álex Saab from his position as Minister of Industries. This decision shakes the Chavista power structure, as Saab was a personal front man for Maduro, arrested for money laundering in the United States and returned by the Biden administration in 2023.
Changes in leadership also materialized in the Ministries of Communication and Information, Transportation, and Ecosocialism. Yes, “ecosocialism,” a woke formulation that joins Nicolás Maduro’s use of inclusive language.
It is possible that these dismissals and promotions are part of a purge to place individuals closer to and more obedient to Delcy Rodríguez in decision-making positions, or to purge those unwilling to go along with potential future changes.
Maduro’s son, “Nicolasito,” a member of the National Assembly, has also been in the news for his statements under Rodríguez’s interim presidency, which are far from his 2017 statement, when he asserted, incorrectly, that “If the United States dares to desecrate our homeland, the rifles will reach New York and we will take the White House!” Today he is calling for the resumption of diplomatic relations with the United States and Israel.
Jorge Rodríguez has spoken on Venezuelan state television about the need to reform Venezuela’s Electoral Code, the same one that forced Maduro’s “victory” in the summer of 2024 over the opposition ticket of Edmundo González and María Corina Machado.
If none of this convinces the reader that these steps seem to indicate a shift towards a gradual de-Chavization (with pressure from the United States, of course), and if the reader believes more in the interim president’s sovereignty-focused speeches than in the pragmatism of Stephen Miller’s words about the United States controlling Venezuela, then pay attention to the latest move by an ally of Caracas.
China, to whom Chavismo opened another door (along with Cuba and Nicaragua) in Latin America, has just demanded that Delcy Rodríguez repay the loans it had happily disbursed, totaling up to $20 billion.
Only time and the turbulent circumstances of politics will tell, but in this new episode of Chavismo (God willing, the last), China is noticing how Venezuela is beginning to move slowly in a different direction, one where it no longer looks like a good investment, nor a long-term platform for the enemies of the West.
