Who’s who in Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle in Venezuela, including some wanted by the U.S.
(CBS NEWS) – CBS News reports that Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were arraigned Monday in New York on federal drug trafficking and other charges following their capture in a dramatic U.S. military operation over the weekend. But virtually all of the ousted leader’s inner circle — including some with whom he’s accused of running a cartel that has allegedly smuggled tons of cocaine into the U.S. — remain in their posts.
The U.S., along with many Venezuelans and other nations, believe the election in Venezuela last year was actually won decisively by the party of 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, a longtime leader of the country’s persecuted political opposition. Maduro declared victory despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud and intimidation.
But Machado has lived in exile for many months, and her current location wasn’t clear on Monday. She appeared to have been largely snubbed by Mr. Trump in his immediate plans for Venezuela, with the U.S. leader saying she lacks the popular support to be installed as a new head of government.
Machado voiced optimism in a statement on Monday that she and “the brave people of Venezuela” would soon enjoy freedom and “celebrate on our land.” But for now, the people holding the guns and ostensibly running the country are not her supporters, but Nicolás Maduro’s.
Below is a look at some of the most senior members of the Maduro regime who remain in Caracas — and in the case of at least one, have just got a promotion.
Delcy Rodríguez
The most senior member of Maduro’s inner circle untouched by the U.S. attacks and raid over the weekend is probably the country’s former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in on Monday as the new interim president, taking the reins from her longtime political mentor.
The 56-year-old has long been seen as a loyal confidant and protege of the now-deposed Venezuelan leader, and a member of a cadre accused by Washington for many years of helping Maduro maintain his authoritarian grip on power.
It wasn’t clear on Monday if Rodríguez and the Trump administration could find a way to work together, and thus whether she could remain in power to some degree following Mr. Trump’s assertion that the United States would “run” Venezuela for some unspecified period.
Mr. Trump warned over the weekend that if Rodríguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
Diosdado Cabello
Another stalwart of the Maduro regime is Diosdado Cabello, who currently serves as Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, giving him oversight of the country’s police and prisons.
Cabello previously served as vice president, and for many years as president of the country’s parliament. He also spent years in command of Venezuelan intelligence services.
Like Maduro, he was indicted on criminal charges in the United States, accused of helping to traffic more than 5 tons of cocaine to the U.S.
In 2020, he was among those charged with various federal drugs and weapons offenses in an indictment filed in the same Southern District of New York that was handling Maduro’s arraignment on Monday.
The indictment names Cabello as a senior figure in the Cartel del los Soles, which Maduro is accused of leading.
Vladimir Padrino López
Vladimir Padrino López, currently serving as Venezuela’s Minister of Defense, is also accused of direct involvement in trafficking drugs into the U.S.
The U.S. accuses him of allowing the safe passage of commercial flights carrying illegal drugs, and of collecting a protection fee for doing so, and he was indicted in a federal court in Washington D.C. in 2020.
Jorge Rodríguez
The new interim president’s brother, Jorge Rodríguez, has served as President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, the country’s Maduro-controlled legislature, since 2021. He’s also considered a key figure in the regime.
“My main function in the days to come… as president of this National Assembly, will be to resort to all procedures, all platforms, and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president,” Jorge Rodriguez told lawmakers.
Just like his sister, Rodríguez has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury over his alleged role in undermining democracy in Venezuela and propping up Maduro’s authoritarian regime.
Nicolás “Nicolasito” Ernesto Maduro Guerra
One of Maduro’s sons, along with his mother Cilia, who was arraigned with her husband in New York on Monday, was also charged in 2020 with drug offenses relating to the Cartel de los Soles.
Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, 35, known in the country as Nicolasito, or Little Nicolás, is currently the deputy president of the legislature. He is also sometimes referred to as “The Prince” in the country.
According to the U.S. indictment, the younger Maduro partnered with his father, other senior officials and “narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups, who dispatched processed cocaine from Venezuela to the United States via transshipment points in the Caribbean and Central America.”
