Yearly Archives: 2026

Delcy Rodríguez has a Gun Pointed at her Head – Does She have Options?STEVE ELLNERDonald Trump’s success in wresting concessions from Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez is a clear demonstration of what can be achieved through the barrel of a gun. Just hours after the military incursion that resulted in the kidnaping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores on January 3, Trump boasted “we’re going to run the country” and shortly thereafter called himself Venezuela’s “acting president.” He has also heaped praise on Rodríguez for serving both U.S. and Venezuelan interests, explaining "She's doing a great job because she's working with us.”It’s not hard to understand why Rodríguez – whose father was a revolutionary martyr – has been so compliant. On January 3, just hours after the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores, Trump publicly threatened then vice-president Rodríguez and other Chavista leaders with what amounted to decapitation, along with a far larger military assault. According to Rodríguez, Rubio by phone gave her and the second-in-command Diosdado Cabello 15 minutes to acquiesce to Washington’s new terms or face death. As she put it, “the threats and the blackmail are constant.”Some critics of the leftist government question [...]

Some reactions to the US military attack on Venezuela, detention of Maduro, plans outlined by Trump and other US officials at the subsequent news conference, and US media coverage. Version 1.3, updated 10pm, Jan. 3, in St. Louis, MO Daniel Hellinger is Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Webster University, and author/editor of several books on Venezuela. He is presently researching and writing a book on resource nationalism in Venezuela and Chile, with a focus on oil in the former. Overall take: The US military operation undertaken in Venezuela was a brazen violation of international law and clearly aimed at regime change. The detention of Maduro was a virtual kidnapping. Maduro was widely unpopular, responsible for serious human rights violations, and involved in corruption, but Venezuela was not a “failed state. He was not the “kingpin” of a major drug trafficking operation; never emptied the country’s prisons and sanitariums of flood the US with criminals; and retained the support of a considerable minority of Venezuelans. The US operation has major destabilizing repercussions for the hemisphere and international system; the Trump regime has indicated it is prepared to act similarly against other governments that refuse to accept American regional and [...]