Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez agreed to work with the US government once former president Nicolas Maduro was captured, The Guardian reported on Thursday, citing four high-level sources involved in the discussions.
Maduro was captured along with his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3 by US forces to be brought to the States to face drug and weapons charges. The next day, the Constitutional Chamber of Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered that Rodriguez, the vice president at the time, become acting president, and Rodriguez was sworn in on January 5.
While initially Rodriguez condemned what she called the “kidnapping” of Maduro, last week the acting president held a phone call with US President Donald Trump, which she called long, productive, and courteous, in which they discussed a bilateral agenda for the benefit of both countries.
According to The Guardian, Rodriguez began speaking with US officials in the fall, continuing after Trump demanded Maduro leave Venezuela in a call in late November, which Maduro refused.
One source told The Guardian that in December, Rodriguez was ready to cooperate with the US after Maduro was removed. “Delcy was communicating, Maduro needs to go," the source said.
Another souce familiar with the messages said, “she said, ‘I’ll work with whatever is the aftermath.’”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had reportedly been sceptical of Rodriguez's cooperation, allegedly came to believe that her promises were "the best way to prevent chaos once Maduro was gone."
Rodriguez had frequent official talks with US officials to coordinate the deportations of Venezuelans from the US as well as discussions through back channels.
Additionally, Rodriguez reportedly had close ties with Qatar and was considered a friend to some members of the ruling family, who used the goodwill it had with the Trump administration to help gain Rodriguez greater access.
According to The Guardian, neither the Venezuelan government nor the White House responded to questions regarding the matter.
US names new top envoy for Venezuela after Maduro capture
The United States named a two-time US ambassador as its top envoy for Venezuela, according to the US embassy in Caracas website.
Laura Dogu, who previously served as ambassador to Honduras and Nicaragua, will serve as charge d'affaires to the Venezuela Affairs Unit based out of the embassy in Bogota, according to the website.
Dogu takes up the role after the US captured Maduro in a raid earlier this month and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
“The Trump Administration continues to work with the interim authorities to stabilize Venezuela as part of the three-phase plan Secretary Rubio laid out for Congress and the American people," a senior State Department official said.
"This plan requires a full-time Chargé d'Affaires at the Venezuela Affairs Unit, located at the United States Embassy in Bogota. Ambassador Dogu is ... well-positioned to lead the team during this transition period.”
The United States earlier this month began preparations in case Trump decides to reopen the US embassy in Venezuela's capital Caracas.
US diplomatic and security personnel traveled to Caracas on January 9 for an assessment of a "potential phased resumption" of embassy operations there, a State Department spokesperson said at the time.
The US in 2019 withdrew all diplomatic personnel from Venezuela, citing the deteriorating situation in the country after months of political unrest.
Bid to rein in Trump's Venezuela war powers fails in US House
The US House of Representatives Republicans narrowly defeated a resolution on Thursday that would have barred Trump from further military action in Venezuela without the authorization of Congress, days after a similar measure failed in the Senate.
The House voted 215 to 215, a tie that defeated the resolution which "directs the president to remove United States Armed Forces from Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force."
The vote was largely along party lines in the narrowly divided chamber, where Trump's Republicans have a 218 to 213 majority. Every Republican except Don Bacon (Nebraska) and Thomas Massie (Kentucky) voted against the resolution. Every Democrat voted in favor.
House leaders held the vote open until Republican Representative Wesley Hunt (Texas) could return to the Capitol building to cast the decisive no vote. California Republican Tom McClintock did not vote.
The close vote reflected concern in Congress, including from a handful of Republicans, over Trump's foreign policy. There is growing support for the argument that Congress, not the president, should have the power to send US troops to war, as spelled out in the US Constitution.
Opponents of the resolution had argued it was unnecessary because the US does not currently have troops on the ground in Venezuela.
"We do not have anybody there in Venezuela fighting," Republican Representative Brian Mast (Florida) said in the debate before the vote.
Republicans also accused Democrats of introducing the legislation only as an attack on Trump. "It's about spite," Mast, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said. "You will condemn him no matter what he does."
'Forever war'
Backers disagreed, saying they wanted to keep Trump from pulling the US into another "forever war," after decades fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The American people want us to lower their cost of living, not enable war," said Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the foreign affairs panel.
US forces swept into Caracas on January 3 and captured Maduro. A large flotilla of US ships is blockading Venezuela, and has spent months firing on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean and Pacific.
Trump recently said the US will run Venezuela for years, told Iranians protesting against their government that "help is on the way" and threatened military action to take Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.
Some Democrats also denounced Trump for leaving most of Maduro's government in place in Caracas and failing to present a plan for Venezuela after his removal.
"The machinery of repression was left in place and the Democratic hopes of Venezuelans are being left behind," said Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida).
Recent votes on war powers have been very close, with the measure failing in the Senate last week only because US Vice President JD Vance came to the Capitol to break a tie.
"If the president is contemplating further military action, then he has a moral and constitutional obligation to come here and get our approval," said Representative Jim McGovern (Massachusetts), a lead sponsor of the House resolution.
The Trump administration argues that Maduro's capture was a very limited judicial operation to bring him to trial in the US on drug charges, not a military operation.