.jpg)
The US has warned Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's notoriously brutal interior minister, that he faces potential elimination even as it relies on his security apparatus to prevent chaos during the country's turbulent transition, Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the administration's strategy.
The contradictory approach underscores Washington's dilemma in post-Maduro Venezuela: the very figures whose control over security forces makes them indispensable for preventing chaos are the same hard-liners least likely to acquiesce to American demands and most deeply implicated in human rights abuses that have defined the regime's repression.
Cabello, commanding security forces accused of widespread torture and extrajudicial killings, represents the most ideologically committed and unpredictable element within the precarious triumvirate now governing Venezuela. According to Reuters, messages delivered via intermediaries have made clear that resistance could bring consequences matching those visited upon Nicolás Maduro, seized in a military operation on January 3 and now detained in New York facing narco-terrorism prosecution, or potentially worse.
Yet targeting Cabello risks provoking armed pro-regime motorcycle groups called colectivos into violent action, triggering exactly the destabilisation scenario Washington hopes to prevent.
Cabello, who began his career in the armed forces, has become the regime's chief instrument of repression, commanding both military and civilian intelligence operations. The 62-year-old demonstrated loyalty to former president Hugo Chávez during the failed 2002 coup attempt and has since served successively as vice president, National Assembly president, and, upon becoming interior minister, the primary enforcer for two decades at the heart of Chavismo's repressive apparatus.
His influence extends across SEBIN, the civilian intelligence agency, and DGCIM, the military counterintelligence service, both designated by United Nations investigators as having perpetrated crimes against humanity through systematic efforts to eliminate political opposition. The repression intensified in the wake of the widely disputed 2024 election that the regime claimed Maduro won despite independent audits showing opposition candidate Edmundo González captured over two-thirds of the votes.
Through these organisations, Cabello oversees widespread domestic espionage whilst wielding the threat of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance against perceived enemies of the revolution.
Cabello's reputation for ideological zealotry and willingness to employ violence distinguishes him from acting president Delcy Rodríguez, the technocratic figure Washington has embraced as its preferred transitional leader. His weekly television programme Con el Mazo Dando (Striking with the Club) has become a platform for publicly lashing out at opponents, journalists and dissidents – a far cry from Rodríguez's cultivation of business elites and foreign investors.
Though both have occupied senior positions within government, parliament and the ruling party for years, they have never been regarded as political allies. American planners worry that Cabello's brutal track record and longstanding tensions with Rodríguez position him to undermine the White House’s strategy, according to the source briefed on administration thinking.
Both Cabello and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López face US federal drug trafficking indictments with multimillion-dollar bounties on their heads, standing threats that Washington can activate should either prove insufficiently cooperative. American officials regard Padrino as less rigidly ideological than Cabello, making him likelier to comply with Washington's requirements if offered immunity and exile.
Yet Trump's team determined that opposition forces under Nobel laureate María Corina Machado lack capacity to maintain order during the period Washington requires for establishing American oil companies' operations without committing US military personnel to Venezuela. The president instead adopted confidential intelligence analysis indicating that senior regime figures represent the most viable option for provisional governance.
The administration demands that Venezuela's leaders demonstrate willingness to open the country's oil industry on terms favourable to US companies, crack down on narcotics trafficking, expel Cuban security personnel, and cease cooperation with Iran. According to ABC News, citing US officials, Washington has also demanded Venezuela sever ties with China and Russia as conditions for extracting and selling oil.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a private briefing with lawmakers that the oil-rich nation faces financial insolvency within weeks if it cannot offload reserves currently sitting in tankers, a leverage Washington intends to exploit. The administration expects demonstrable movement on these demands in coming weeks, according to the source familiar with administration planning.
Trump's declaration that he will "run" Venezuela seems to reflect ambitions for decisive external influence over the OPEC member without committing American troops, an intervention that would be met with huge domestic political resistance. His team views Rodríguez as central to their plans: a pragmatic administrator willing to cooperate on transitional arrangements and key oil sector matters.
However, how long the façade of solidarity between Rodríguez and other senior regime figures will hold remains deeply uncertain. Cabello's ideological commitment to Chavismo, his history of violent repression, and his rivalry with Trump's pick to rule Venezuela position him as the likeliest source of fracture in Washington's risky bet.
No comments:
Post a Comment