Venezuela After Maduro: Who Runs It Now?

On the night of 2 to 3 January 2026, more than 150 American aircraft launched from 20 bases on land and at sea. In Caracas, US special forces stormed a heavily guarded compound and seized President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Within hours, they were on an American warship, bound for a jail cell in New York.

Nine months on, the man is gone but his government is not. His own vice president runs Venezuela after Maduro, as acting president, and President Donald Trump calls her a partner. So who really holds power in Caracas, why did Washington keep Maduro’s state, and will Venezuelans get to choose?

How did the US capture Maduro?

In August 2025, Washington raised its reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. It accuses him of leading a drug-trafficking network from inside the state. He denies it.

Through the autumn of 2025, the United States gathered a large naval force in the Caribbean. Then, on 3 January, it came for the man himself. By the American account, Maduro had about three minutes’ warning.

US officials say seven Americans were injured and none died. They put the dead in Venezuela at about 75. Cuba says 32 of its personnel died.

Two days later, in a Manhattan courtroom, Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism, drug and weapons charges. He told the judge he was still his country’s president. On 15 October, he and his wife also pleaded not guilty to a new count of conspiracy to commit torture.

Russia called the raid “armed aggression”, and Venezuela’s Supreme Court spoke of a military aggression. Washington calls it an arrest. Either way, taking away one man is not the same as changing a government.

Who runs Venezuela now, and why his deputy?

On the day of the raid, the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber ordered the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to serve as acting president. It cited Maduro’s “forced absence”. Two days later, the National Assembly swore her in.

At first, she stood by her old boss. “There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro,” she said on state television. In Florida, however, Trump drew a different picture:

We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.

Donald Trump, 3 January 2026

Trump also passed over the opposition. Its leader, María Corina Machado, lacked “the support or the respect” within the country to lead, he said.

Why keep the old government’s number two?

Look at who holds the guns. Hugo Chávez took office in February 1999. Over almost 27 years, he and Maduro shaped the army, the police and the intelligence services. So Washington chose to work with the people already in charge.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio set out three phases: stabilisation, then recovery and reconciliation, then a transition.

Her legal footing remains in dispute. The constitution allows a temporary absence of 90 days, plus 90 more if the Assembly agrees. The first 90 days ran out in early April with no public vote to extend them, AP reported. Critics argue that “forced absence” appears nowhere in the constitution. Still, in mid-October, she held the post.

Who holds power in Caracas? The new power map

At the top sit a sister and a brother. Delcy Rodríguez runs the government. Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, runs the National Assembly and leads the government’s side in talks with the opposition. Between them, they hold the presidency and the parliament.

Then there is Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister, in charge of the police. Washington still offers up to $25 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. He denies the charges against him.

On 18 March, Rodríguez replaced the defence minister, Vladimir Padrino López, after more than 11 years in the job. Within days, a new head of the armed forces and new branch commanders followed.

The new defence minister, Gustavo González López, once ran SEBIN, the intelligence service. He is an insider of the movement Chávez founded, and he is under US sanctions. So Venezuela after Maduro has a new leader on top of the same system.

Who	Role now	What to know
Delcy Rodríguez	Acting president since 3 January 2026	Off the US sanctions list since 1 April 2026
Jorge Rodríguez	President of the National Assembly	Leads the government’s side in the talks; off the US sanctions list since 14 October 2026
Diosdado Cabello	Interior minister	US reward of up to $25 million; denies the charges
Gustavo González López	Defence minister since 18 March 2026	Former intelligence chief; under US sanctions
María Corina Machado	Opposition leader	2025 Nobel Peace Prize; abroad since December 2025
Edmundo González	Opposition candidate in 2024	In exile in Spain

Venezuela after Maduro: who controls the oil money?

What holds this arrangement together is money. Venezuela has about 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the largest on Earth, according to OPEC’s statistical bulletin. Most of it, though, is extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco belt, says the US Energy Information Administration.

In the late 1990s, Venezuela pumped more than 3 million barrels a day. By June 2020, output had fallen to about 356,000, by OPEC’s count. Caracas blames US sanctions; Washington blames mismanagement. In September 2026, the country pumped about 1.15 million barrels a day, roughly as much as North Dakota.

Venezuela’s oil	Figure	As of
Proven reserves	about 303 billion barrels, the world’s largest	OPEC, April 2026
Output at the low point	about 356,000 barrels a day	June 2020
Output now	about 1.15 million barrels a day	September 2026

Who sells the oil now?

Since January, the United States has controlled the sale of Venezuela’s oil. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said it would do so “indefinitely”. An executive order of 9 January keeps the proceeds in US Treasury accounts as Venezuelan state property, out of creditors’ reach.

By late July, Trump said more than $13 billion worth had been sold. But there is no full public account. The State Department told Congress in April that about $3 billion had been paid out. In September, Senate Democrats demanded an accounting.

The buyers have changed too. In 2025, about three quarters of Venezuela’s oil exports went to China. In September 2026, the United States took about 629,000 of the 1.08 million barrels a day exported, more than any other buyer. Part of the pull is the war with Iran, which has cut the Gulf’s supply of heavy crude and largely shut the Strait of Hormuz.

Cuba lost its Venezuelan oil: about 26,500 barrels a day in 2025, roughly a third of the island’s needs, Reuters reported.

The hundred-year deal

Washington wants more than the sales. On 28 August, Trump announced a deal: 17 oil fields, with an estimated 65 billion barrels, go to a new US-backed venture on 100-year concessions. The United States gets the right to buy 20% of the output at cost, officials said. A reported 35% stake for a Pentagon investment office remains in dispute, because a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters the office takes no such stakes.

Chinese and Russian companies once held some of those fields, according to Transparencia Venezuela, citing Reuters. The pattern echoes Washington’s approach to Greenland: more access and control, without a change of flag.

What does each side get from the deal?

The arrangement works because each side needs the other.

What Washington wants

For now, Washington needs someone who can keep order, keep the oil flowing and keep Russia, China and Iran out. In January, it reportedly demanded that Caracas cut its ties with all three, and with Cuba. The same push against China’s footprint in the hemisphere lies behind Trump’s pressure over the Panama Canal.

Washington also says the goal is a real transition. In June, Rubio told Congress that this needs free and fair elections and a new electoral commission, set up “as soon as possible”.

What Caracas gets

Rodríguez gets money and recognition. In March, at a summit at his Doral club in Florida, Trump said the United States formally recognised her government. “She’s doing an excellent job partnering with us,” he said.

Then, name by name, the sanctions came off. The US Treasury took Delcy Rodríguez off its sanctions list on 1 April. On 14 October, it did the same for her brother.

Under US pressure, Caracas has given ground too. On 19 February, the Assembly unanimously passed an amnesty law. It excludes crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, and freed prisoners face gag orders and travel limits. A government commission said in February that more than 3,200 people had been “fully released”, a count that includes people who had been under house arrest. Foro Penal, a rights group, counted 894 releases by mid-June.

Cuban security advisers began to leave in February. In March, the American flag rose again over the US embassy in Caracas, seven years to the day after it came down.

The earthquakes

Then the ground itself moved. On 24 June, two earthquakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck north-central Venezuela about 40 seconds apart. By August, the official death toll had passed 6,000. The World Bank put direct physical damage at $19.6 billion. Rebuilding now competes with the transition for money and attention.

In September, during UN week in New York, Trump and Rodríguez met briefly. She called it “historic”. The partnership holds, but one group has never had a say in it: Venezuela’s voters.

Will Venezuela hold elections?

The disputed 2024 vote

In July 2024, Venezuela held a presidential election. The electoral council declared Maduro the winner with 51.95%, but it never published a detailed count. The tally sheets that opposition witnesses collected at polling stations showed their candidate, Edmundo González, winning about two thirds. Observers from the Carter Center backed those sheets. González now lives in exile in Spain.

Machado’s blocked return

Machado, the opposition’s leader, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025. In January, at the White House, she handed her Nobel medal to Trump. The Nobel committee says the prize itself cannot pass to anyone else.

Her team says at least seven attempts to return have failed, three of them from Panama on 21 and 22 September. She blames the government in Caracas, which denies blocking her. The Telegraph and The Washington Post reported that the White House discouraged a June attempt; Rubio denies that Washington stands in her way. On 18 October, Al Jazeera reported that the opposition alliance had renewed its backing for her as leader.

Polls, prisoners and talks

AtlasIntel’s latest online poll for Bloomberg puts Machado at 52% and Rodríguez at 19%. Online polls, however, tend to miss rural, older and poorer voters. In early October, Foro Penal counted 322 political prisoners: 182 civilians and 140 members of the military.

On 14 October, a third round of US-backed talks opened in a Caracas hotel. Jorge Rodríguez leads the government’s side. Dinorah Figuera, who heads the opposition-elected National Assembly of 2015, leads the other. Machado and González are not at the table. On the agenda: new Supreme Court judges, the electoral council and the rules for the next election. By 17 October, no agreement had been reported.

What still has not been set is a date. At the UN in September, Rodríguez promised elections as part of a transition to “full democracy”, but she gave no timetable, Reuters reported. Phil Gunson of the International Crisis Group noted that the constitution sets the next vote for 2030. The government, he added, has not committed to the 2027 vote the opposition wants. Machado and many others, he noted, remain barred from standing.

What to watch next

1. The courts. Maduro’s lawyers argue that, as a head of state, he is immune. Judge Hellerstein is due to hear that argument before the trial, which is set for June 2027. In September, Reuters reported a hearing date of 17 November; later reports differ.
2. The talks. A new electoral council and an election date would be the first firm steps towards a vote since the disputed election of 2024.
3. The men with guns. If the security chiefs feel squeezed out, the deal could crack from the inside.
4. The money. Watch for a public account of the oil revenue, and for the restructuring of a debt that S&P Global puts at $150 billion to $200 billion.

Maduro is gone. But in Venezuela after Maduro, the state he built still governs, and the money runs through Washington.

Read more analysis on the Americas.

Frequently asked questions

Who is running Venezuela now?

After Maduro’s capture on 3 January 2026, Delcy Rodríguez, his vice president, became Venezuela’s acting president. She still holds the post. Her brother Jorge leads the National Assembly. Washington recognises her government and controls the sale of Venezuela’s oil. As of 19 October 2026, no date has been set for a presidential election.

Where is Maduro now?

Nicolás Maduro is in jail in New York. US forces captured him and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas on 3 January 2026. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include narco-terrorism, drug and weapons counts and, since October, conspiracy to commit torture. Their trial is set for June 2027, before Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Why does the US want Venezuela?

Washington’s stated reasons include the drug case against Maduro, who denies the charges, and pushing Russia, China and Iran out of the country. Oil matters too. Venezuela has about 303 billion barrels of proven reserves, the world’s largest, and the United States has controlled the sale of its oil since January 2026.

When is Maduro’s trial?

The trial in New York is set for June 2027, before Judge Alvin Hellerstein; reports give 1 June or 14 June. Before then, the judge is due to hear the defence’s argument that Maduro is immune from prosecution as a head of state. Maduro and his wife have pleaded not guilty to every charge, and trial dates can still move.

Will Venezuela hold elections?

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez has promised elections but set no date. A third round of US-backed talks with part of the opposition began in Caracas on 14 October 2026, covering the electoral council and the Supreme Court. Under the constitution, the next vote is due in 2030, a Crisis Group analyst notes; the opposition wants one in 2027.