Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim leader after the capture of Nicolás Maduro?

A stalwart of Venezuela’s socialist regime for decades, the 56-year-old has abruptly ascended to the seat of power.

In the wake of the extraordinary U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, the international spotlight has fallen on Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s interim leader and a key player in an explosive geopolitical drama.

President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that Rodríguez had been “sworn in” as president and stood “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Rodríguez has sent mixed signals, however, insisting that Maduro remains Venezuela’s “only president,” while also pledging to “collaborate” with the Trump administration.

Rodríguez’s de facto leadership of Venezuela caps a remarkable political ascent for an official who has served in a variety of roles under the governments of both the late socialist President Hugo Chávez and Maduro, who once called her a “tiger” for her vociferous defense of his left-wing authoritarian regime.

Here’s what you need to know about Rodríguez, 56, as Maduro faces a federal indictment in the United States and the immediate fate of Venezuela hangs in the balance.

Revolutionary roots

Rodríguez was born in Caracas on May 18, 1969. She is the daughter of Marxist guerrilla fighter Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a co-founder of the Socialist League, a militant revolutionary party that was particularly active in the 1970s.

Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the 1976 kidnapping of American businessman William F. Niehous. The elder Rodríguez died in police custody at the age of 34. The saga became a foundational memory for his daughter and one of the raisons d’etre for her political career.

“The revolution is our revenge for the death of our father and his executioners,” Delcy Rodríguez was quoted as telling a Venezuelan politician in 2018, referring to Chávez’s socialist political program.

She has close political ties with her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, a psychiatrist by training who serves as president of the National Assembly, the country’s unicameral legislature. He was the country’s vice president under Chávez, who died in 2013.

Extensive resume

Rodríguez is a lawyer by training who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 1993. She went on to study labor law in Paris and social sciences in London before launching her Venezuelan political career in the early 2000s.

She held various low-profile positions in the Chávez regime before taking on a more visible profile as communication and information minister in 2013. Then came the job of foreign minister, from 2014 to 2017, as well as a role heading the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly.

Rodríguez’s loyalty to Maduro earned her influence and stature, according to Ryan C. Berg, the director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. It was the principal reason why she was “handpicked” for the vice presidency in June 2018, making her second in the country’s line of succession, Berg said.

“She has survived in multiple positions because of her ability to exercise power effectively within that regime,” Berg told NBC News.

In a post on social media announcing Rodríguez’s ascension to the vice presidency, Maduro described her as “a young woman, brave, seasoned, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles.”

In recent years, Rodríguez added even more responsibilities to her vice presidential portfolio, taking on roles as finance and oil minister. The latter gave her oversight over Venezuela’s most crucial business sector and coveted export — and tested her resolve as she attempted to deal with severe U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil industry and the toll of inflation.

Rodríguez has never faced U.S. criminal charges, though she was sanctioned by the first Trump administration for the role she allegedly played in squashing political dissent in Venezuela.

Uncertainty ahead

It remains to be seen whether Rodríguez will stay in power, and the rhetoric from the leaders of both Venezuela and the U.S. has fluctuated since Maduro’s stunning capture.

Trump said Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in contact with Rodríguez, describing her as “gracious” and willing to work with the American government as it prosecutes Maduro on narco-terrorism charges in New York.

In a televised address, Rodríguez struck a more antagonistic tone, reportedly blasting the “extremists” in the Trump administration and insisting that Maduro was Venezuela’s rightful leader despite his capture and indictment by the U.S. government.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” Rodríguez said, according to The Associated Press.

In a post on Instagram on Sunday, Rodríguez used far more diplomatic language, emphasizing the need for a more “balanced and respectful relationship” between Venezuela and the U.S.

“We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperation agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez wrote in part.

Trump then presented a stark warning to Rodríguez, telling a reporter for The Atlantic: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

But even if Rodríguez’s interim role turns into a more permanent position, she will still need to fortify her political standing inside Venezuela and what remains of the Maduro regime, according to Berg.

“She does not enjoy support from some of the main factions” in Venezuela, Berg said, “and most importantly, she’ll have to consolidate support over the armed forces.”