Overview
- Reuters reported U.S. officials were in talks with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello months before the Jan. 3 raid and have since warned him not to deploy security forces or colectivos, even as he remains under U.S. indictment with a $25 million reward outstanding.
- Interim leader Delcy Rodriguez has moved to consolidate control, naming Major General Gustavo Gonzalez to head the DGCIM and meeting in Caracas with CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
- Associated Press documents show the DEA has tracked Rodriguez for years and designated her a “priority target” in 2022, though she has not been publicly accused of criminal wrongdoing.
- Former Vice President Mike Pence urged new elections to replace Rodriguez, and opposition figure María Corina Machado said after meeting President Trump that free and fair voting will come “eventually” once the repression apparatus is dismantled.
- Venezuelan authorities publicly rejected the Reuters account of contacts with Cabello as “malicious,” even as analysts say the security apparatus he influences largely remains intact.