US Held Early Talks With Hard-Line Venezuelan Minister Before Major Raid
In the high-stakes drama following the US-led capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a critical subplot has emerged, revealing the complex and shadowy foundations of Washington’s strategy. According to multiple sources, Trump administration officials were in secret communication with Venezuela’s powerful and hard-line Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, both before and after the January 3rd raid that ousted Maduro.
These discussions, which have not been previously reported, expose the delicate and paradoxical balance the US is attempting to strike in controlling Venezuela’s volatile transition.
The Man Who Wasn’t Taken
Cabello is no peripheral figure. Long considered the nation’s second-most powerful official, he is a feared enforcer with deep control over the country’s intelligence services, police, armed forces, and pro-government militias. Notably, he is also named in the same US drug-trafficking indictment used to justify Maduro’s arrest, with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Yet, he was conspicuously left untouched during the operation. The reason, sources indicate, is pragmatic: Cabello controls the very security apparatus needed to prevent total chaos. The US warnings to him were stark—do not unleash the forces under your command against the opposition. If he did, he could single-handedly upend the US plan and threaten the grip of the interim president it backs, Delcy Rodríguez.
A Strategy of Necessity Over Ideals
The communications underscore a stark reality in Washington’s post-Maduro calculus. While publicly championing Interim President Rodríguez as the linchpin for democracy, the administration has simultaneously been negotiating with a sanctioned official it accuses of narco-trafficking and repression. The goal is stability and access to oil, even if it requires engaging with figures from the old regime.
This creates an inherent tension. Cabello is a longtime Maduro loyalist with a history of rivalry with Rodríguez. US officials reportedly fear he could become a “spoiler,” using his influence to sabotage Rodríguez’s authority from within. As former US envoy Elliott Abrams noted, for a true democratic transition to advance, figures like Cabello would eventually need to be removed. His continued presence signals that the old power structures remain largely intact.
The Unclear Path Forward
The critical questions remain unanswered. Did these secret talks involve discussions about Venezuela’s future governance? Has Cabello heeded US warnings? Publicly, he has pledged unity with Rodríguez and is even overseeing a slow-moving prisoner release program—a move likely encouraged by Washington. Yet, he has also denounced American intervention, declaring “Venezuela will not surrender.”
The situation reveals the Trump administration’s layered strategy: capture the symbolic head of the regime, but carefully manage the powerful structures beneath to avoid a catastrophic collapse. It is a gamble that places immediate stability above a clean break with the past, relying on a precarious understanding with a man the US itself has labeled a criminal kingpin.
For now, Diosdado Cabello remains the uncaptured center of gravity in Venezuelan power. The success or failure of America’s venture may hinge less on the prisoner in a Brooklyn jail, and more on the unindicted minister still holding the reins of the security state.
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