Exclusive-In post-Maduro Venezuela, US eyes security chief as potential target, sources say

By Matt Spetalnick, Sarah Kinosian, Jana Winter and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has put Venezuela's hardline interior minister on notice that he could be at the top of its target list unless he helps Interim President Delcy Rodriguez meet U.S. demands and keep order following the toppling of Nicolas Maduro, according to three people familiar with the matter.

 Diosdado Cabello, who controls security forces accused of widespread human rights abuses, is one of a handful of Maduro loyalists that President Donald Trump has decided to rely on as temporary rulers to maintain stability during a transition period, said one source briefed on the administration’s thinking.

U.S. officials are especially concerned that Cabello, given his record of repression and history of rivalry with Rodriguez, could play the spoiler and are seeking to force his cooperation even as they look for ways to eventually push him out of power and into exile, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

WARNING TO CABELLO

In the meantime, they have communicated to Cabello via intermediaries that if he is defiant, he could face a similar fate to Maduro, the authoritarian leader captured in a U.S. raid on Saturday and whisked away to New York to face prosecution on “narco-terrorism” charges, or could see his life in danger, the source said.

But taking out Cabello could be risky, possibly motivating pro-government motorcycle groups, known as colectivos, to take to the streets, unleashing the chaos Washington wants to avoid. Their reaction may depend on whether they feel protected by other officials, however.

In one of her first decisions as acting president, Rodríguez appointed General Gustavo González López as new head of the Presidential Honor Guard and the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), state TV said late on Tuesday.

González López, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and EU along with at least half a dozen other high-ranking officials for rights violations and corruption, served as Venezuela's intelligence director until mid-2024, when he was replaced by Maduro in a reshuffle of his cabinet and security team.  

Later that year, he began working with Rodríguez as head of strategic affairs and control at state oil company PDVSA. 

González López was considered close to Cabello, but it was not immediately clear whether his appointment was a gesture of support from Rodríguez to the man considered the strongman of the ruling party, or, on the contrary, a sign of a rift.

The officer replaces General Javier Marcano, whose performance came under scrutiny after Maduro's capture, according to analysts.

Rodríguez later announced the appointment of Calixto Ortega, former president of the Central Bank, as Vice President of Economy.

Also on the list of potential U.S. targets is Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who, like Cabello, is under a U.S. drug trafficking indictment and has a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, according to two sources.

“This remains a law enforcement operation, and we are not done yet,” said a U.S. Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.     

U.S. officials see Padrino’s collaboration as crucial for avoiding a power vacuum due to his command of the armed forces. They believe he is less dogmatic than Cabello and more likely to toe the U.S. line while seeking his own safe exit, the source briefed on administration thinking said.

A senior Trump administration official declined to answer Reuters' specific questions but said in a statement: “The President is speaking about exerting maximum leverage with the remaining elements in Venezuela and ensuring they cooperate with the United States by halting illegal migration, stopping drug flows, revitalizing oil infrastructure, and doing what is right for the Venezuelan people.”

Venezuela's communications ministry, which handles all press requests for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ADMINISTRATION DOUBTS OPPOSITION COULD KEEP PEACE: SOURCE

  The administration has decided Venezuela's opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, would be unable to keep the peace at a time when Trump wants enough calm on the ground to jump-start access for U.S. oil companies to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and to avoid having to put U.S. forces on the ground, the source said.

Trump instead has embraced a classified CIA assessment that concluded Maduro’s top aides would be best situated to run the country on an interim basis, according to sources briefed on the matter.

U.S. officials also decided to work with Maduro’s allies for now out of concern that the country could descend into chaos if they tried to force a democratic handover, and that an excluded member of the inner circle might foment a coup, according to one of the sources.

But the administration wants to eventually see a move toward new elections, U.S. officials have said, though the timeframe remains uncertain.

Trump has offered no clear explanation of how Washington would oversee Venezuela after the biggest U.S. intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama. Critics have condemned it as neocolonialism and a violation of international law.

RODRIGUEZ SEEN AS LINCHPIN

For now, Washington sees Rodriguez as its best bet to temporarily hold power while it continues developing plans for governing post-Maduro Venezuela, a strategy one source described as “very much still a work in progress.”

Among the U.S. demands for Venezuela's leaders are a demonstration of willingness to open up Venezuela’s oil industry on terms favorable to U.S. companies, a crackdown on the narcotics trade, the expulsion of Cuban security personnel and an end to Venezuelan cooperation with Iran, the source briefed on administration thinking said.

The U.S. wants to see progress toward meeting U.S. objectives in a matter of weeks, the source said.

Beyond threats of further military action, the U.S. could use Rodriguez's finances as leverage. The U.S. has identified those assets, sheltered in Qatar, and could seize them, the source said.

A Qatari official told Reuters that claims Rodriguez has assets in Qatar are inaccurate.

CO-OPTING VENEZUELAN OFFICIALS

U.S. authorities and their intermediaries are also seeking to co-opt other senior Venezuelan officials and those at levels below them to open the way for a government that will acquiesce to Washington’s interests, the source said.

Trump’s advisers see Rodriguez as the linchpin: a technocrat who they believe is amenable to working with the U.S. on a transition and oil-related issues, according to people briefed on the U.S. strategy.

Though she and Maduro’s other top loyalists have projected a mostly united front, it is unclear whether that will last.

Rodriguez and Cabello have both operated at the heart of the government, legislature and ruling socialist party for years, but have never been considered close allies.

A former military officer, Cabello, seen as the main enforcer of repression within Maduro’s government, exerts influence over the country's military and civilian counterintelligence agencies, which conduct widespread domestic espionage.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Sarah Kinosian, Jana Winter, Humeyra Pamuk; writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Don Durfee and Rod Nickel)