CARACAS, Venezuela — United States Special Forces quickly and publicly overthrew Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Now, the people who kept him in power are being gradually and discreetly purged. Some have been fired or detained, and others look over their shoulders, worried about being next.
Oligarchs close to Maduro’s family were forced from their homes. His political allies were summarily removed from their positions. Relatives were removed from business and banned from appearing in the media.
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The “cleaning” is being led by Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who runs the country under the guidance of the Trump administration. The arrests and removal of leaders have been occurring without public explanation, but often with the approval — and sometimes at the request — of the White House, according to people close to Rodríguez’s government.
After Maduro was dragged to a New York prison in January, Rodríguez presented herself as a reluctant, temporary replacement for a toppled leader, denouncing his capture as an illegal attack on the country.
But now, with Maduro out of the picture, she is dismantling the power group that surrounded him and initiating the biggest redistribution of power in Venezuela in decades.
The reshuffle of national leadership, combined with sweeping new laws and his alliance with President Donald Trump, is reshaping Venezuela and the way the country manages one of the largest oil reserves on the planet, just as the world faces energy market turmoil caused by war in the Middle East.
In the three months since Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez has changed 17 ministers, replaced military commanders and appointed new diplomats. She also oversaw the detention of at least three businessmen linked to Maduro, fired several of her relatives and cut off most of her family’s access to oil contracts.
In their place, she has appointed loyal allies or sponsored businesspeople who owe her debts, while opening the doors to American investors in oil and mining.
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The changes brought little transparency or pluralism to a government that remains authoritarian. The Venezuelan opposition claims that, instead of leading the country back to democracy, Rodríguez is consolidating his power.
But she is far from making all the decisions alone. After capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an overwhelming show of force, the Trump administration threatened to attack Venezuela again if the new leadership refused to cooperate. Several senior Venezuelan officials and members of the government compared Rodríguez’s command to governing “with a gun to your head.”
Rodríguez now uses this threat of American coercion to attack influential figures in the ruling party previously considered untouchable. The result has been a political victory for both Trump and Rodríguez, allowing U.S. officials to settle scores with Maduro allies who stood up to them while bolstering Rodríguez’s leadership.
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Venezuela’s transformation from US adversary to something of a protectorate has been dizzying for most Venezuelans.
Surveys show that a large part of the population celebrates the end of Maduro’s 13 years of autocratic rule, marked by violence, corruption and electoral fraud.
Many remain skeptical of Rodríguez, a longtime figure in the ruling Socialist Party who has never held elected office.
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But for Maduro’s friends, associates and fellow party members, the new political landscape brought an unfamiliar wave of anxiety and risk.
More than a dozen of them spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation. Some said they had been placed under surveillance by Venezuelan secret police since Maduro’s ouster. Others said they tried to avoid Caracas, the capital, and even considered exile.
The Venezuelan government did not respond to questions for this report. A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said the Trump administration has a “mutually beneficial” relationship with the Rodríguez administration.
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“We are dealing very well with President Delcy Rodríguez,” said Kelly. “Oil is beginning to flow, and large amounts of money, unheard of in many years, will soon greatly help the people of Venezuela.”
The losers from Maduro’s fall are part of a heterogeneous group. They include relatives of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, many of whom have accumulated great wealth over nearly three decades of their combined rule.
They also include businesspeople who owe their fortunes to personal ties with the two presidents, as well as veterans of the socialist movement formed by Chávez in the 1990s, which became known as Chavismo.
The Trump administration had been considering Rodríguez as Maduro’s successor since 2025 and maintained indirect contacts with her. There is no evidence that she knew about US military plans, but this was not enough to reduce distrust within the ruling party.
Rodríguez’s interim mandate began just hours after Maduro’s capture, on January 3, with an impassioned speech denouncing US aggression. A week later, she led a delegation of powerful figures and Cuban officials to pay tribute to dozens of Cuban and Venezuelan soldiers killed in the American attack.
“We are not bequeathing a legacy of traitors and cowards,” Rodríguez declared in a televised speech, in an attempt to project unity.
Most of those who were at her side that day have already been discarded.
Maduro’s longest-serving minister, General Vladimir Padrino López, was fired from his position as Minister of Defense in March and then transferred to a much less relevant role, heading the area of agriculture. Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, and Flores’ son, Yosser Gavidia Flores, were removed from lucrative state deals, according to government sources.
Maduro’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, was fired, given a consolation position, and then fired again. Camilla Fabri, Maduro’s envoy for immigration issues, lost her post. Days later, her husband was detained.
And there is also the Chancellor of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez. Since participating in Delcy Rodríguez’s speech, he has seen the decades-old alliance between his country and Venezuela unravel in just a few weeks.
As Rodríguez consolidated control, the dismissals became bolder.
Maduro’s first confidant to fall was Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and husband of Fabri, who made billions from preferential food and oil contracts and faces corruption-related charges in the United States.
On January 16, Rodríguez wrote on social media that Saab was no longer Venezuela’s Minister of Industry, thanking him for “his service to the country” and saying he would “take on new responsibilities.”
Two weeks later, Saab was detained. American authorities and the Rodríguez government are now negotiating his fate, including possible extradition to the United States.
People close to Rodríguez’s government say she oversaw the detention of two other prominent businessmen linked to Maduro’s family: Raúl Gorrín and Wilmer Ruperti. Gorrín also faces charges related to corruption in the US.
Saab’s lawyer declined to comment. Legal representatives for Ruperti and Gorrín did not respond to requests for comment.
The Rodríguez government has not commented on the arrests or announced any charges, leaving Maduro’s allies to speculate who could be next.
In March, Rodríguez expanded the purge to the Armed Forces, dismissing Venezuela’s entire military leadership, including Padrino López, previously seen as one of the most powerful men in the country.
A Venezuelan general said many see the dismissal of top commanders as the start of a much deeper reform of the armed forces, guided by the United States.
Sources close to Rodríguez’s administration said she coordinated some of the replacements with the Trump administration. According to them, American authorities also pressured her to target US adversaries, such as Gorrín and Saab.
The winners of Rodríguez’s economic restructuring include Venezuela’s traditional economic elites, who once sided with the opposition but made peace with Chavismo. By betting on stability rather than democracy, they gained access to foreign markets and the US banking system.
Western investors are other beneficiaries. In recent times, they have been flocking to luxury hotels in Caracas in search of bargains on assets in the oil, mining and tourism sectors.
Only one top minister from the Maduro government remains in office: Diosdado Cabello, the Interior Minister who commanded the ruling party’s repression apparatus.
Cabello is wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges and has clashed with Rodríguez in the past. But his ties to pro-government armed groups also make him a valuable ally — and a risky target.
To stay in power, Cabello reinvented herself: from “pit bull” of the ruling party to patriotic guarantor of stability.
Within the ruling party, most leaders adapted, abandoning the old anti-imperialist discourse in exchange for the chance to remain in command.
A senior official said his colleagues do not trust Rodríguez but feel they have no alternative.
“We need her, and she needs us,” said another.
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