Delcy Rodríguez, the dual dictator of Venezuela, keeps political prisoners to sustain state terrorism.

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 25/01/2026

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Venezuelan dictator Delcy Rodríguez, while obeying US dictates regarding oil, awards medals to the CIA director and requests a meeting with President Trump, domestically reaffirms her loyalty to imprisoned Nicolás Maduro, whose release she promises. She also affirms the continued presence of the criminal group in power and uses the repressive apparatus. She is a dual dictator who, employing Cuba's strategy, cedes ground to buy time, using political prisoners as her primary weapon to maintain state terrorism.

Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez has become the first female dictator in the Americas, appointed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Venezuelan regime. She assumed the role of "interim president" after the United States arrested Nicolás Maduro on January 3rd to face charges of narcoterrorism. She is the sister of Jorge Rodríguez, president of the regime's National Assembly, and both are children of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a Venezuelan leftist guerrilla involved in the kidnapping of American businessman William Frank Niehous, who was murdered in 1976.

The personal history of Delcy—the current dictator of Venezuela—proves that she is “a cadre of the Cuban dictatorship,” part of the team, part of the system, formed and trained from home as a radical leftist, Castro supporter, and anti-imperialist. She is the main defender of state terrorism and crimes against humanity committed by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro within the framework of the transnational criminal organization they present as 21st-century socialism, as evidenced by the 2002 takeover of the Venezuelan Embassy in London, the attack on President Macri of Argentina when he called for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela at the 2015 Mercosur Summit, her actions against Secretary Almagro's reports at the 2016 OAS, and more.

In this context, for Delcy Rodríguez, human rights violations, the application of state terrorism, political prisoners, torture victims, and exiles are merely part of the methodology used to retain power indefinitely and with impunity, as the Cuban dictatorship teaches and defends. Delcy, in her international and domestic actions, has consistently defended the abuse of power, the existence of political prisoners, and the judicialization of persecution, and has used these tactics to legitimize them.

This is the same woman involved in the “Delcygate” scandal, who arrived at Barajas Airport in Spain in 2020 despite being sanctioned by the European Union since 2018 and banned from entering the Schengen Area. She was found to be carrying 40 suitcases—the contents of which are still debated as to whether they contained money or gold—that were taken to the Venezuelan Embassy in Madrid, with the complicity of Pedro Sánchez's government and his Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos. These crimes remain unpunished, covered up by the Castro-Chavista dictatorship and Spanish secrecy.

Rodríguez's strategy to gain the trust of the US government consists of demonstrating obedience, distancing himself from Cuban influence, and operating a Venezuelan alternative that can avoid confrontation, offers internal control, and is therefore essential in the three stages of "stabilization, recovery, and transition" of the US plan for Venezuela. However, the facts prove that he only concedes what he cannot deny, that he maneuvers, and that he buys time to weaken the US position.

Undoubtedly, the United States government knows all this and much more, but in the realm of objective reality, of what the Venezuelan people feel and what public opinion in the Americas perceives after the extraordinary action of January 3, the one who appears to be winning is Delcy Rodríguez with her brother and her power group, because in exchange for partially removing Cuba's control over the Venezuelan government, she has impunity, she has effective internal command, she maintains state terrorism, and she aggressively and publicly declares against the United States, defending Maduro and the criminal organization of which Delcy is the leader.

This is just part of what I've called "the extraordinary challenge of dismantling the Venezuelan dictatorship/narco-state with its own mafiosos," analyzing the US strategy after Maduro's capture. Therefore, the crucial thing is that things happen, that they happen, and quickly. It must be emphasized that Delcy's strategy and that of her criminal group is the same as Cuba's for the last 67 years: "BUY TIME EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO CEDE GROUND." And to buy time, you have to do things slowly, presenting multiple difficulties, creating problems to delay their resolution, wearing down imperialism.

Right now, Delcy's weapon and that of her dictatorship are the political prisoners because they maintain state terrorism. She doesn't release all of them from the torture and detention centers; she releases them, but she doesn't free them because there is no freedom with conditions, and they are subject to the apparatus of prosecutors and judges who are henchmen of the regime.

The order to the dictator must be effective and immediate freedom (within 24 hours) for all political prisoners, dismissal and prosecution of the regime's prosecutor with the appointment of a credible jurist for the public dismantling of the state terrorism system.

*Lawyer and Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy

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