Delcy Rodriguez: Venezuela’s new leader boasts leftist credentials

SAO PAULO - Ms Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s new interim leader, arrives at the job with impeccable leftist credentials.

She is the daughter of a Marxist guerilla who won fame for kidnapping an American businessperson, was educated partly in France, where she specialised in labour law and rose to meteoric heights in the government of Mr Nicolas Maduro,
whom she is succeeding.

But Ms Rodriguez, 56, is also known for building bridges with Venezuela’s economic elites, foreign investors and diplomats, presenting herself as a cosmopolitan technocrat in a militaristic and male-dominated government.

After Venezuela’s economy endured a harrowing crash from 2013-21, she spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul that had provided a semblance of economic stability before the US military campaign targeting Mr Maduro.

Her privatisation of state assets and relatively conservative fiscal policy had left Venezuela somewhat better prepared to resist the Trump administration’s blockade of sanctioned tankers carrying oil, the country’s economic lifeblood.

The contradictions enveloping Ms Rodriguez were on display on Jan 3 when she addressed the nation on state television. While US President Donald Trump said that Ms Rodriguez had been sworn in as Venezuela’s new president, it was clear that Mr Maduro’s supporters – including her – still see him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

Ms Rodriguez repeatedly said that Mr Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president”, and the text on Venezuelan state television labelled her as vice-president. When she ended, the state broadcaster immediately said that Ms Rodriguez, as the vice-president, had just made clear that Mr Maduro remained Venezuela’s president.

Ms Rodriguez rose to prominence after Mr Maduro became president in 2013, following the death of Mr Hugo Chavez, the founder of Venezuela’s Bolivarian political movement, which blends left-wing and nationalist ideals.

Mr Maduro appointed her as communications minister, before naming her foreign affairs minister, the first woman to hold that post in Venezuela.

Shuttling between Latin American capitals, she often seemed to revel in feuding with conservative leaders.

In 2018, Ms Rodriguez was promoted again, this time to the vice-presidency and the head of SEBIN, a Venezuelan intelligence agency. She took on additional duties in 2020 as economy minister and proceeded to extend an olive branch to business elites in Venezuela.

But she has also been targeted by sanctions from the United States, Canada and the European Union for her role in supporting and helping to oversee crackdowns on dissent in Venezuela.

Her entry into Venezuelan politics seemed natural as the daughter of Mr Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, a Marxist leader who led the kidnapping in Venezuela of William Niehous, an American businessperson who was held for three years in a jungle hideout and rescued in 1979.

Her father was arrested and charged for his role in the kidnapping and died in 1976, at age 34, after being interrogated by intelligence agents.

Politics and leftist activism run in the family. Ms Rodriguez’s older brother Jorge is another member of Mr Maduro’s inner circle. He is the president of the National Assembly and was Mr Maduro’s chief political strategist. NYTIMES