The Trump administration told prosecutors to avoid a criminal investigation of Venezuela’s acting president
The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to refrain from pursuing a criminal investigation into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who has long been targeted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former US law enforcement officials – the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich country.
It’s unclear whether prosecutors have implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators are close to indicting him. A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice said in an email that “there has never been an investigation against him to close.”
But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show he has been on the agency’s law enforcement radar since at least 2018, even though he has never been charged with a crime in the US like other top Venezuelan officials.
The order to suspend the investigation of Rodríguez was designed to avoid interfering with the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of his predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, the official said.
It is unclear whether the White House, which has deferred comment from the Justice Department, is involved in the decision.
“Everyone was told to stand down,” said one of the former officials.
The former officials, who were briefed on the development, and the current official all spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal discussions.
Rodríguez, the US attorney representing him and Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications did not respond to requests for comment.
Take the pressure off Rodríguez
Removing the threat of possible impeachment, even temporarily, eases pressure on Rodríguez as the Trump administration seeks to work with the interim leader to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro’s ouster and open the country to US investment.
US President Donald Trump hailed Rodríguez as a “terrible man” shortly after the US military took Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal drug charges. Both pleaded not guilty.
In recent months, the US lifted sanctions against Rodríguez and recognized him as the sole head of state of Venezuela, allowing him to re-establish relations with western banks and work freely with American investors seeking access to the world’s largest oil reserves.
As relations between the two governments grow, some have seized on Venezuela’s playbook — characterized by an oil embargo, impeachment of top leaders and threats of military intervention — as an example of regime change from within as the U.S. clamps down on other longtime adversaries in Iran and Cuba.
Rodríguez and his brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the National Assembly, were hit by US sanctions during Trump’s first term for their role in undermining Venezuela’s democracy and strengthening the Maduro regime.
Rodríguez is “doing a great job,” Trump wrote on social media in early March. “The oil is starting to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between the two Countries is wonderful to see!”
In recent months, Rodríguez has held celebrations with dozens of American oil workers, some of whom participated in high-level delegations led by US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
The election speech has been postponed
Absent all the backlash is the talk of Venezuela’s election, as Rodríguez last month defied a 90-day deadline set by Venezuela’s highest court to temporarily fill Maduro’s position.
“I don’t know,” he replied in English when a visiting American reporter earlier this month shouted a question about his time to run the election. “Sometime.”
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that the administration explain its treatment of Rodríguez, calling him “a middle man in Nicolás Maduro’s repressive regime.”
“Sanctions have been removed from Ms. Rodríguez without showing that she has taken specific and reasonable steps to restore the democratic order,” Sheehan, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote in a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
Rick de la Torre, former CIA station officer in Caracas, said the decision to suspend any criminal investigation into Rodríguez is in line with the Trump administration’s policy on Venezuela.
“He is a Marxist all his life and he was the top leader of one of the most corrupt regimes in the world, but the US is giving him breathing space and carrots to lay the foundation for democracy and US investment,” said de la Torre, CEO of Tower Strategy, which advises companies that want to do business in Venezuela.
“There is a shelf life in his work, though. At some point he will face justice,” he added.
On the DEA’s radar
The DEA has collected an intelligence file detailing Rodríguez’s romantic relationship through at least 2018, and has found allegations against him ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, the AP reported earlier this year. Another undercover informant told the DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a prime location for money laundering,” the records said.
US President Donald Trump posted a photo of a map on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday showing Venezuela with an American flag written on it and the label ’51st State.’ Antonio Matheus Suárez, a reporter for the Caracas Chronicles, says that Venezuelans do not believe that Trump’s recent comments about acquiring Venezuela pose a ‘great threat.’
His name has come up in nearly a dozen DEA investigations — many of them ongoing as recently as this year — involving offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. He has been linked to Maduro’s alleged purser, Alex Saab, who was first arrested by US authorities in 2020 on money laundering charges, records show.
Rodríguez fired Saab this month as part of a purge of business insiders accused of enriching themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.
It is unclear where Rodríguez’s name came from in the Miami investigation. Two former officials said Rodríguez attended a meeting with investigators in Tampa last year under Pam Bondi, the former US attorney general, looking into financial crimes in Venezuela.
At the time, Rodríguez was serving as Maduro’s vice president. Justice Department policy requires the attorney general to approve the impeachment of any foreign head of state, who is generally immune from prosecution under international and US law.
