A report published this Thursday (16) by the newspaper Miami Herald revealed that senior leaders of the Chavista regime tried to convince the United States to accept a political transition in Venezuela without dictator Nicolás Maduro.
According to the newspaper, the proposal came from the vice-president of the regime, Delcy Rodríguez, and her brother Jorge Rodríguez, an ally of the regime and current president of the National Assembly. The offer would have had Maduro’s approval and was presented to the Americans through intermediaries in Qatar.
According to sources cited by Heraldthe Rodríguez brothers would have sent two formal offers to the United States government this year, one in April and another in September. The negotiations, mediated by representatives of the Qatari government, proposed the formation of a provisional government that would be led by Delcy Rodríguez, preserving the Chavista political structure, but without the presence of Maduro in power.
The first proposal, according to the publication, predicted that the dictator would leave the leadership of Venezuela in exchange for security guarantees to remain in the South American country. In contrast, the “new government”, led on an interim basis by Delcy Rodríguez, would open the oil and mining sector to American companies and end partnerships with Caracas’ traditional allies, such as Russia, China and Iran.
The second proposal, presented in September, went further. According to the Miami Heraldthe plan called for the creation of a transitional government also led by Delcy Rodríguez and retired general Miguel Rodríguez Torres, former Minister of the Interior and former ally of the late dictator Hugo Chávez. Maduro, in turn, would, in this scenario, seek exile in Qatar or Turkey, receiving guarantees of personal security. Rodríguez Torres, currently in exile in Spain, would be responsible for articulating support between military sectors and dissident Chavistas, although his history of repression and allegations of torture during his tenure in Chavista intelligence represented an obstacle for the United States.
The newspaper highlights that the contacts took place through the United States special envoy, Richard Grenell, who already met with Maduro in January, at the Miraflores Palace, the regime’s headquarters. The diplomat, who brokered the release of American citizens imprisoned by the regime, did not comment on the case. THE Miami Herald also reported that the State Department did not respond to questions about the negotiations.
The report cites that, within President Donald Trump’s government, the offers were seen as part of an attempt to promote a “Madurismo without Maduro”, informally nicknamed “Cartel Lite”, a milder version of Chavismo that would allow a controlled transition without breaking the power system. However, according to the sources cited, the White House ruled out any negotiations with figures linked to drug trafficking or those sanctioned for human rights violations.
