Two weeks have passed since the US invaded dictator Nicolás Maduro’s compound in Caracas and took him to face trial in the US on drug trafficking charges, along with his wife, Cilia Flores. For the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, however, according to an article this weekend, the Maduro regime continues to operate in the figure of its most important leader still at liberty, minister Diosdado Cabello.
Trump said the US would govern Venezuela until further notice. But, according to the newspaper, dictator Delcy Rodríguez collaborates with the US “with words, not actions”. Trump has tasked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of Homeland Security and Migration Kristi Noem with coordinating Venezuela’s transition and ensuring that the country’s interim dictator, Delcy Rodríguez, “cooperates.”
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The good news, according to the WSJ, is that the armed forces are fragmented, which means some sectors favor a transition to democracy. “By enlisting and organizing these patriots, we could restore order and avoid an institutional collapse like that in Iraq” after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, according to the WSJ.
The bad news, for the newspaper, is that the ruthless interior minister, with “anti-American ideology”, still controls most of the armed forces and militias and there would be elements to claim that he is “planning to take over everything”.
“Unless he is neutralized,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plan for Venezuela “will likely not happen,” the article says.
Release of prisoners
The newspaper also states that Venezuela is releasing prisoners slowly, which “does not send a good sign.” “Why this gradual release? One of the reasons could be that many of the prisoners would be in terrible conditions and would embarrass Delcy Rodríguez, who would try to cultivate an image of ‘civility’.”
A bigger problem for both Delcy and Cabello is that, if prison is discarded, they would lose the “necessary tool of repression” to remain in power. Since Maduro was taken away, there have been reports of regime agents linked to Cabello, both in uniform and in plainclothes, intimidating the population with threats of arrest and physical violence.
The newspaper ends the article by saying that Delcy says what the US wants to hear, while at the same time trying to please Cabello. “One side needs to fall,” the article concludes.
Do that military thing
Considered the most hard-line of the regime’s remaining leaders, Diosdado Cabello has been the face of the military wing of Chavismo since its inception, responsible for executing the repressive orders of the deposed dictator Maduro against the opposition.
Cabello said this week that the Chavista dictatorship “will not rest” until it achieves the release and return of dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Cabello reinforced that the Caracas dictatorship spares no effort to reverse what it classifies as Maduro’s “kidnapping”. Delcy Rodríguez, in turn, had previously said that she would not “rest for a minute” until she had Maduro back in the country.
International organizations estimate that both Maduro and Cabello accumulated a billion-dollar fortune with the regime.
