Merely a couple of days after the abduction and detention of President Nicholas Maduro by U.S. Special Forces, Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the Acting President of Venezuela in surreal circumstances. U.S. President Donald Trump backed Ms. Rodriguez over the claims of Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Machado, whom he called “not respected” despite her saying everything in favour of Mr. Trump and his imperialist actions.

Mr. Trump’s “endorsement” of Ms. Rodriguez as Washington’s preferred interlocutor reveals the contradictions at the heart of Venezuela’s new political reality. On January 5, when her brother Jorge, President of the National Assembly, administered the presidential oath, Ms. Rodriguez delivered a defiant inaugural address condemning the “kidnapping” of Mr. Maduro, the country’s “legitimate President”.

Yet, she also extended an invitation to Washington for a “cooperation agenda” and “shared development”—clearly indicating pragmatic priorities during an economic crisis exacerbated by the U.S’s naval blockade.

Mr. Trump had tacitly accepted her interim authority, heeding the CIA’s suggestion that the Bolivarian state apparatus was more cohesive and capable during the crisis. Yet, he later issued threats that should she deviate from his expectations, she could be the next potential target. For Ms. Rodriguez, this U.S. imperialist conjuncture represents a difficult choice. She must navigate Venezuela from imminent economic collapse while managing the interests of the Chavista rearguard and a restive military establishment bristling at attacks on national sovereignty.

The 56-year-old Ms. Rodriguez’s ascension reflects recognition, both by the Chavistas and the U.S. invaders, of her ability to manage mutually contradictory positions at a difficult moment. It is a role the lawyer-turned-diplomat has played over years shaped by tragedy, revolutionary ideology and pragmatism.

Ms. Rodriguez’s father Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, a founder of the Marxist Socialist League, died from custodial torture when she was seven, after being arrested in connection with a corporate executive’s kidnapping. Within the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the siblings are seen as inheritors of an ideological outlook represented by their deceased father, unlike Mr. Maduro who rose through trade union activism or Diosdado Cabello, Hugo Chavez’s compatriot with a military and political legacy. Mr. Cabello controls the PSUV’s radical wing and organisation.

Ms. Rodriguez is, however, no mere ideologue, combining her activism from student days with training in Europe that has enabled her to navigate diplomatic circles in New York and Geneva. This helped her exercise technocratic authoritarianism especially as the Maduro administration moved away from the charismatic populism of the Chavez era.

Face of diplomacy

Between 2014 and 2017, as Foreign Minister, Ms. Rodriguez became the face of Venezuelan diplomacy during its most confrontational period, when she withdrew Venezuela from the Organization of American States, which she characterised as a “Ministry of Colonies” under U.S. hegemony.

As Executive Vice-President from 2018 to earlier this week, Ms. Rodriguez managed Venezuela’s economy and guided it to a more manageable crisis after the disaster of 2017, with hyperinflation, lack of essential goods, poor oil production and massive out-migration. She maintained radical rhetoric while implementing market-friendly reforms that allowed contracts to Venezuelan business classes to circumvent U.S. sanctions, permitting de facto dollarisation—measures the government said were necessary to fight an “economic war” launched by the U.S.

These measures, while helping the economy stage a moderate recovery, also created a dual economy where Venezuela’s elite could access goods in dollars while the majority struggled with a hyperinflated bolivar. Her endorsement of the Anti-Blockade Law, which permitted confidential transfer of oil production assets to private contractors, created tensions within the PSUV and with leftist allies. By 2024, the electorate seemed tired of economic challenges. Mr Maduro managed to retain power only by dubious means in the 2024 elections.

The challenges Ms. Rodriguez faces are greater than before. The U.S. demands economic capitulation and handover of Venezuela’s assets, which will be strongly resisted by the Chavistas. She must balance the interests of the military establishment, to whom Mr. Maduro had ceded control of key economic institutions to consolidate power.

Two factors may offer limited room for manoeuvre. First, the lack of unanimous support for full-scale invasion among Mr. Trump’s MAGA base, which partly explains his “endorsement” of her interim authority over regime change. Second, Chavistas recognise that further escalation could trigger complete economic collapse and loss of popular support.

Yet, the situation is also volatile. With the Trump administration featuring hardline Latin American emigré descendants like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and a Venezuelan opposition elite long determined to reclaim power by any means necessary, Ms. Rodriguez must navigate an increasingly narrow path between capitulation and confrontation.

Published – January 11, 2026 01:21 am IST

Venezuelan Opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public for the first time in 11 months early Thursday (December 11, 2025) morning, when she waved to supporters from a hotel balcony in Norway’s capital hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

Ms. Machado and her supporters then sang Venezuela’s national anthem before she left the hotel to shake their hands. People erupted in cheers and began chanting, “Freedom! Freedom!” and “Thank you! Thank you!”

Ms. Machado, dressed in jeans and a puffer jacket, spent several minutes outside the hotel, where she was joined by members of her family and several of her closest aides.

Ms. Machado had been in hiding since January 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. She had been expected to attend the award ceremony on Wednesday (December 10, 2025) in Oslo, where heads of state and her family were among those waiting to see her.

Ms. Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she would not be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.

“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Ms. Sosa said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.

Ms. Machado, in the audio recording published on the Nobel website, many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said, before indicating that she was about to board a plane.

Ms. Machado said that “since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them. And as soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I know that share our struggle and our fight.”

Show of solidarity

Prominent Latin American figures attended on Wednesday (December 10, 2025) in a signal of solidarity with Ms. Machado, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.

The 58-year-old Ms. Machado’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on October 10. Mr. Frydnes said that Venezuela has evolved into a “brutal authoritarian state”, and he described Ms. Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in recent Latin American history.”

Ms. Machado won an Opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.

The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.

Mr. González, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s (December 10, 2025) ceremony.

U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Mr. Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.

Fight for freedom

“More than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey — that to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” Ms. Sosa said as she delivered the lecture written for the occasion by her mother.

The speech did not refer to the current tensions between Washington and Caracas, as U.S. President Donald Trump continues a military operation in the Caribbean that has killed Venezuelans in international waters and threatens to strike Venezuela. Ms. Machado has consistently endorsed Trump’s strategy toward Venezuela.

Among many “heroes of this journey” honoured in the lecture, Ms. Sosa mentioned “the leaders around the world who joined us and defended our cause”, but did not elaborate.

Mr. Frydnes said of authoritarian leaders like Mr. Maduro that “your power is not permanent. Your violence will not prevail over people who rise and resist.”

“Mr. Maduro, accept the election result and step down,” he said.

Past winners unable to attend

Five past Nobel Peace Prize laureates were detained or imprisoned at the time of the award, according to the prize’s official website, most recently Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023 and Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski in 2022.

The others were Liu Xiaobo of China in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 and Carl von Ossietzky of Germany in 1935.

Published – December 11, 2025 10:52 am IST

Relatives of prisoners detained in a post-election crackdown wait outside of Tocuyito Prison after a visit, in Tocuyito, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro labeled them as terrorists on national television. They were plucked from pharmacies, apartment buildings and other locations, and thrown in prison for months. Many then endured severe beatings, food deprivation and other forms of torture. Virtually all developed stomach infections and lost weight. Three died.

More than 2,200 people were detained after Venezuela’s July presidential election, when civil unrest broke out over Mr. Maduro’s claim to victory. With dissent firmly squelched, the government has slowly released nearly 1,900 of the mostly poor, politically unaffiliated twenty-somethings.

Tearful reunions with family, some as recently as Friday (January 31, 2025), have brought them an immense sense of relief, but it vanishes with the realization that they are not truly free, neither physically nor mentally.

Now at home, the former detainees, particularly those who participated in post-election demonstrations, must also cope with the disappointment that the votes they defended on the streets did not push Mr. Maduro out of office or produce the change they hoped for.

“You go home, see your loved ones and get drunk on happiness, but 24-48 hours later, reality hits you,” a man who was detained for more than five months told The Associated Press. “What is the reality? My fundamental rights were violated, and I am still at the mercy of the same government.”

The man and relatives of other former detainees narrated to AP how the government’s repressive apparatus wrecked their lives after the July 28 election. Most spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government or its network of ruling-party loyalists who through physical force and control of state subsidies quash dissent.

Former detainees suffer insomnia, cannot be among crowds and tremble at the sight of a police officer. They have heart conditions not typical of young adults. They are worse off financially than before the election and cannot find work partly because their IDs were seized during their arrests.

They feel doubly insulted having to tap into the government’s precarious health, food and cash programs, but some see no other alternatives.

The families of the former detainees are indebted to loan sharks and acquaintances after spending hundreds of dollars in transportation as well as meals, medicines, toiletries and other items not provided by the corrections system. Some mothers sob at night. Others silently carry the guilt that comes from having their children home again while other families are still making prison visits.

“The intimidation to which we are being subjected – the psychological damage that they are causing us – is the worst thing that can be done to a population… with a desire for freedom,” the mother of a former detainee said. “That is terrorism.”

Millions of Venezuelans expressed their desire for a change in government in the July election but electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Mr. Maduro the winner hours after polls closed without providing detailed vote counts, unlike in previous elections.

Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 85% of electronic voting machines showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.

The dispute over the results sparked nationwide protests. The government responded with force, arresting more than 2,200 people, even if they had not participated in the demonstrations, and encouraging Venezuelans to report anyone they suspected of being a ruling-party adversary. More than 20 people were killed during the unrest.

Throughout Mr. Maduro’s presidency, state security forces have carried out mass arrests but never like last year’s in terms of time span or primary demographic.

Previous protests were led primarily by young, college-educated, middle- and upper-class Venezuelans of European descent who openly embraced the country’s political opposition. But at the end of July, those on the streets were adolescents and young adults whose lives have been marked by poverty and letdowns from Maduro’s government.

“They were the children and grandchildren of the people who voted for Hugo Chávez,” Oscar Murillo, head of the Venezuelan human rights group Provea, said referring to Maduro’s predecessor. “They did not identify with the opposition. They came out in rejection of the poor management of the election results.”

In prison, however, part of the detainees were forced to wear uniforms in a shade of blue associated in Venezuela to an opposition party.

As time wore on inside overcrowded and sweltering cells, a few attempted suicide, some leaned into prayer and many were convinced they would all be freed by Jan. 11, the day after the presidential term, by law, begins in Venezuela. Those fixated on that deadline were banking on Mr. González fulfilling his promise to return from exile and be sworn in as President.

Not only did Mr. González not return, his son-in-law was also detained and remains in custody.

Since being released, former detainees and their loved ones now pray for health, work and a new president. But they have sworn off politics.

“They instilled fear in political participation, which does a huge amount of damage to any society that wants progress and development in any country,” the former detainee said.

More than 11 years after assuming power as Venezuela’s interim President following the death of popular leader Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro has yet again been sworn in as the President of the Latin American country. The circumstances of the retention of his post and the reactions to the ceremony from international actors provide a sense of deja vu.

In 2019, when Mr. Maduro was sworn in for the second time as President, nearly 40 countries including the U.S., neighbouring Colombia and Brazil and those belonging to the EU, refused to recognise his presidency. Sixteen UN-recognised countries sent representatives, including Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

In 2025, however, only two Presidents — Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega — attended. International condemnation of the manner in which Mr. Maduro was declared President after the elections held on July 28, 2024 has been more severe this time around. Since 2019, there has been a new Pink Tide in Latin America with countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Chile electing leftist Presidents. All three leaders have rejected Mr. Maduro’s “victory”.

Chile’s Gabriel Boric said on Thursday (January 9, 2025) – “From the political left, I tell you that the government of Nicolas Maduro is a dictatorship”. Brazil’s leader Lula da Silva vetoed the entry of Venezuela into BRICS following the latter’s inability to release detailed electoral information on the disputed results. Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia also reiterated that it did not recognise the election results of July 28 .

Meanwhile, the Opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who exiled himself to Spain and had recently visited two countries ruled by the Right in Latin America — Argentina and Panama — withdrew plans to return to Caracas for his own “inauguration”.

The results in question and the process in which Mr. Maduro was declared the winner raise severe doubts about the Venezuelan elections in 2024. The U.N., which sent a panel of experts to Caracas, criticised the National Election Council of Venezuela for declaring Mr. Maduro as the winner before providing detailed table-level results.

The electoral system consisted of an electronic voting machine which produced a paper receipt after voters registered their choice at the polling booth. At the end of polling, each machine would print a tally sheet showing the candidates’ names and the votes that they received. The National Election Council traditionally put up only the vote counts at the end of the election on its website, but the site was down during the counting and after disputing the results, the Opposition demanded the release of the tally sheets which was not done.

The Opposition could, on its own, access 83% of the tally sheets from 30,026 polling stations, which “revealed” that Mr. Gonzalez polled 67% votes. The CNE’s figures were different, favouring Mr. Maduro with 51.95% of the vote to Mr. Gonzalez’s 43.2%.

Considering the wide differences on this issue and the fact that the Maduro regime had used intimidatory tactics throughout the election process, several international actors sought the release of the tally sheets to confirm the winner but that was not done.

Economic decline

The 11 years of rule by Mr. Maduro has coincided with a significant decline in Venezuela’s economic standing, with severe increases in the poverty rate, persistently high inflation and food shortages in the country. While inflation had eased to 23.58% in October 2024, hyperinflation has characterised the economy since 2018.

As of October 2023, the UNHCR estimated that more than 7.7 million Venezuelan citizens fled the country to become refugees and 6.5 million among them (84%) are in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Critics of Mr. Maduro blame the catastrophic economic situation on the stark authoritarian turn since he came to power. Some suggest that the economic decline was inevitable as Venezuela was overly dependent upon the petroleum sector — crude constituted 95% of the country’s exports in 2014 and the oil price crash in the same year sent it into a spiral.

Critics argue that the seeds of the economic decline were laid during Chavez’s regime, as he tried to undo the remnants of the country’s liberal democratic order to create a personalised state with concentrated powers for the executive presidency.

Following a coup attempt in 2002 against Chavez, his supporters – the Chavistas – sought to rewrite the rules of power in the country by moving it away from what observers termed an inflexible and ideologically one-sided, two-party system (a byproduct of the Puntofijo Pact between political parties in 1958).

The Chavistas instituted a series of measures, including constitutional referendums and structural changes, most of which received popular support as Chavez won several elections. The Chavistas argue that the regime enhanced grassroots participation in the polity and built cooperatives while using the proceeds of the extractive economy to fund pro-poor programmes. And while the regime was cognisant of diversification, the lack of it during the oil price crash resulted in the economic crisis, which was exacerbated by a series of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the EU after Mr. Maduro came to power. Following the economic crisis, these structures of power were utilised by Mr. Maduro to entrench himself.

Since his ascent to power, Mr. Maduro’s regime has moved away from a popular regime that was dependent upon grassroots mobilisation and participatory democracy to an authoritarian system.

The first Donald Trump administration in August 2017 imposed sanctions prohibiting the Venezuelan government from accessing U.S. financial markets, a move that affected Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA. The U.S. went on, in 2019, to impose further and direct sanctions on PDVSA, preventing it from being paid for petroleum exports to the U.S, froze its U.S. assets and disallowed the supply of diluents that aided the refining of Venezuelan heavy crude, among other measures.

The U.S.-imposed economic sanctions were compounded by the EU’s own embargo on arms and material to be traded with Venezuela, imposed in 2017. Restrictions still remain. The country got a respite when the U.S. eased some sanctions following an agreement signed between Mr. Maduro and representatives of Opposition parties in October 2023 in Barbados with political prisoners being released. The country’s oil output saw an increase, resulting in more exports and a partial easing of the severity of the economic situation. However, in April 2024, the U.S. announced that sanctions would be reinstated on the oil sector.

International opprobrium

Just prior to the inauguration of his third term, the U.S. announced a $65- million bounty for the arrest of Mr. Maduro even as he received support from Russia and China apart from staunch allies in Cuba and Nicaragua.

The international opprobrium and increased polarisation in Venezuela is not deterring Mr. Maduro from doubling down on authoritarianism. A proposed law — the Simon Bolivar law — now stipulates severe punishment for dissidents and repression of civil movements. With Mr. Trump returning to power in the U.S., hostilities are set to renew afresh and the biggest casualty could be the millions of Venezuelans pushed into poverty from a combination of poor economic policies, international sanctions and authoritarianism under Mr. Maduro.

Venezuela’s battered opposition is running out of options for challenging President Nicolas Maduro’s claim to have won re-election.

Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia fled in exile to Spain over the weekend. The popular leader he stood in for at the polls, Maria Corina Machado, is in hiding. Other opposition figures have been arrested and Mr. Maduro is firmly in charge of the oil-rich nation – showing no sign of yielding.

Mr. Maduro’s disputed win in the July 28 election is challenged not just by the opposition or historic geopolitical rivals such as the United States, but also by leftist allies of Venezuela such as Brazil and Colombia.

The latter have come up empty-handed in their efforts to help find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Inside the country, chatter abounds about what the opposition calls a stolen election – but people make their criticisms in whispers: no one wants to join the more than 2,400 people who have been arrested since the vote, including children, with some even accused of “terrorism.”

Mr. Maduro would be sworn in for a third term on January 10, and in the next four months, anything can happen.

But for now, Venezuela looks like this: Mr. Maduro and other heirs of the late iconic socialist leader Hugo Chaves are closing ranks, the opposition is trying to somehow reorganize itself and the outside world is assessing how to confront a Maduro whom international sanctions and pressure have long failed to shake.

Sweeping away everything

The National Electoral Council, loyal to Mr. Maduro, proclaimed him the winner of the election with 52 percent of the votes. That means another six-year term in power for the former bus driver handpicked by Chavez to succeed him.

The opposition published copies of voting records from polling stations, saying the data proves the claim of a Mr. Maduro win is bogus and that Gonzalez Urrutia won by a landslide.

That act of publishing the results online has triggered a probe by the government and charges that the opposition engaged in conspiracy, usurping functions and sabotage.

The government has meanwhile not released detailed voting records to back up its claim of victory – it says it cannot, because the election tally system was hacked.

Mr. Maduro insists he won and at least in public rules out any kind of negotiation with the opposition.

“It is clear that the government is not seeking to yield, and to the contrary it is digging in,” said Antulio Rosales, a political scientist and professor at York University in Canada.

“It is a strategy of domination, of sweeping away everything,” said Giulio Cellini, head of the LOG political consultancy.

The goal, he said, is “to keep Maduro in place no matter what the cost is, because the cost of giving up power is even greater.”

After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Mr. Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud. With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.

Mr. Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013.

His tenure, amid sanctions and domestic economic mismanagement, has seen GDP drop 80% in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to flee.

Gonzalez Urrutia, a 75-year-old, little-known former diplomat – until now – said last week that he was not considering going into exile, as he has now done.

But for many Venezuelans, his flight came as no surprise. He was under tremendous pressure, not just from a legal standpoint – he defied three summonses to appear in court – but also due to a rain of daily insults from Mr. Maduro, who called him “filthy,” a coward and even a Nazi.

Machado, the very popular leader of the opposition who was barred by Maduro-loyal courts from running for president, is now living in hiding.

Many Venezuelans are now wondering if she too will flee into exile.

Protests erupted right after the Maduro win was announced and in clashes with security forces 27 people died and nearly 200 were hurt.

Experts say it is unlikely that the United States will react as firmly as Donald Trump did after Maduro’s disputed win in 2018. Then, the U.S. administration said it no longer considered Mr. Maduro to be president and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido instead.

The most recent U.S. punishment came earlier this month, when it seized one of Mr. Maduro’s planes, in the Dominican Republic. The United States is now expected to impose sanctions on individual members of the Maduro government.

Pablo Quintero, also of the LOG consultancy, said that over the short and medium term, the Maduro government expects to govern in isolation.

“They have trained for these kinds of situations and are willing to endure them in order to stay in power,” he said.