Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s new interim leader, arrives at the job with impeccable leftist credentials.
She is the daughter of a Marxist guerrilla who won fame for kidnapping an American businessman, was educated partly in France, where she specialized in labor law and rose to meteoric heights in the government of Nicolás Maduro, whom she is succeeding.
But Ms. Rodríguez, 56, is also known for building bridges with Venezuela’s economic elites, foreign investors and diplomats, presenting herself as a cosmopolitan technocrat in a militaristic and male-dominated government.
After Venezuela’s economy endured a harrowing crash from 2013 to 2021, she spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul which had provided a semblance of economic stability before the U.S. military campaign targeting Mr. Maduro.
Her privatization of state assets and relatively conservative fiscal policy had left Venezuela somewhat better prepared to resist the Trump administration’s blockade of sanctioned tankers carrying oil, the country’s economic lifeblood.
The contradictions enveloping Ms. Rodríguez were on display on Saturday when she addressed the nation on state television. While President Trump said that Ms. Rodríguez had been sworn in as Venezuela’s new president, it was clear that Mr. Maduro’s supporters — including her — still see him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Ms. Rodríguez repeatedly said that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president,” and even the text on Venezuelan state television labeled her as vice president. When she ended, the state broadcaster immediately said that Ms. Rodríguez, as the vice president, had just made clear that Mr. Maduro remained Venezuela’s president.
Ms. Rodríguez rose to prominence after Mr. Maduro became president in 2013, following the death of Hugo Chávez, the founder of Venezuela’s Bolivarian political movement, which blends left-wing and nationalist ideals.
Mr. Maduro appointed her as communications minister, before naming her foreign affairs minister, the first woman to hold that post in Venezuela.
Shuttling between Latin American capitals, she often seemed to revel in feuding with conservative leaders.
In 2018, Ms. Rodríguez was promoted again, this time to the vice presidency, and the head of SEBIN, a Venezuelan intelligence agency. She took on additional duties in 2020 as economy minister and proceeded to extend an olive branch to business elites in Venezuela.
But she has also been targeted by sanctions from the United States, Canada and the European Union for her role in supporting and helping to oversee crackdowns on dissent in Venezuela.
Her entry into Venezuelan politics seemed natural as the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a Marxist leader who led the kidnapping in Venezuela of William Niehous, an American businessman who was held for three years in a jungle hide-out and rescued in 1979.
Her father was arrested and charged for his role in the kidnapping and died in 1976, at the age of 34, after being interrogated by intelligence agents.
Politics and leftist activism run in the family. Ms. Rodríguez’s older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, is another member of Mr. Maduro’s inner circle. He is the president of the National Assembly and was Mr. Maduro’s chief political strategist.
Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting from Venezuela.
Simon Romero is a Times correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is based in Mexico City.
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