Venezuela’s Minister of Inside Diosdado Cabello delivers a speech throughout a girls’s rally in help of ousted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores in Caracas on Jan. 6, 2026.
FEDERICO PARRA/AFP through Getty Photographs
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FEDERICO PARRA/AFP through Getty Photographs
BOGOTA, Colombia — The seize of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. particular forces has raised hopes of a democratic opening within the South American nation. However to date, there’s been no “Venezuelan Spring.”
That is, partly, as a result of Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s most hardline enforcer, stays in energy below interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who took over following Maduro’s seize by U.S. forces.
Within the hours after the U.S. operation, Cabello, who’s Venezuela’s Inside Minister, appeared on the streets in Caracas sporting a helmet and flak jacket. He condemned the U.S. operation as a “cowardly attack” and urged Venezuelans to not cooperate with what he known as a “terrorist enemy.”
Standing alongside armed safety forces, Cabello known as on supporters to mobilize to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty and warned opponents that these perceived as traitors would face penalties for doubting the Bolivarian revolution.
Like Maduro, Cabello has been indicted in the US on drug trafficking and narco‑terrorism prices, and named alongside Maduro, his spouse Cilia Flores, and different associates in the identical indictment.
Washington is providing as much as a $25 million reward for info resulting in Cabello’s arrest, alleging he was a senior determine in what U.S. authorities have known as the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Solar, a community of Venezuelan officers the U.S. alleges are concerned in cocaine shipments to the US. Cabello has denied the allegations.
However regardless of the U.S. prices, Cabello stays a central determine within the Venezuelan authorities, persevering with to wield important energy whereas the administration seeks to enhance relations with the Trump administration following Maduro’s removing.
When requested about Cabello at a White Home information convention on Wednesday, President Trump did not appear to acknowledge his title. However inside Venezuela, Cabello is infamous.
A stocky determine with a crew lower, Cabello, 62, was an in depth confidant of Hugo Chávez, the founding father of Venezuela’s socialist revolution. As younger military officers, the 2 males took half in a 1992 navy coup with Cabello accountable for a number of tanks that have been alleged to assault the presidential palace.
The coup, which was led by Chávez, collapsed and the 2 males together with dozens of different navy officers have been imprisoned. However after their launch, Chávez was elected president in 1998 with Cabello changing into a part of his interior circle.
This 17 Jan. 2002 file picture exhibits then Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (R) along with his new vice-president Diosdado Cabello (L) throughout a ceremony on the Authorities Palace in Caracas.
JUAN BARRETO/AFP through Getty Photographs
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JUAN BARRETO/AFP through Getty Photographs
Cabello served in quite a few posts, together with head of the telecommunications regulator the place he was instrumental in closing TV and radio stations vital of the federal government. He additionally served as interim president for about 5 hours in 2002 when Chávez was ousted in a short-lived coup.
Though Cabello was lengthy considered as the following in line for President, Chávez made clear earlier than his dying in 2013 that Maduro would succeed him. Maduro’s shut relationship with Cuban officers — who have been deeply concerned in advising Chávez — helped cement that selection.
“It was an open secret in Venezuela that Diosdado Cabello saw himself as the rightful successor to Hugo Chávez, not Maduro,” stated Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela analyst on the Atlantic Council.
As an alternative, Cabello went on to guide Venezuela’s Nationwide Meeting and the ruling Socialist Celebration. However attributable to their rivalry, he was saved out of Maduro’s cupboard till 2024, when protests erupted over robust proof that Maduro had stolen that 12 months’s presidential election.
“Maduro needed to have an enforcer on board to crack heads together and put down the protests in the wake of the stolen election,” Ramsey stated.
Named inside minister in 2024, Cabello led a crackdown wherein 24 individuals have been killed and greater than 2,000 arrested, in line with Human Rights Watch. Now, below interim President Rodriguez, he continues in that put up, controlling Venezuela’s police drive in addition to armed, pro-government motorbike gangs often called colectivos.
Venezuela’s appearing President Delcy Rodriguez, and Inside Minister Diosdado Cabello arrive on the Nationwide Meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
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Ariana Cubillos/AP
Zair Mundaray, a former Venezuelan public prosecutor, says the secure enterprise local weather sought by the Trump administration to take advantage of Venezuelan oil will not occur so long as Cabello stays within the image.
“How can you have legal stability when you have this guy who has armed thugs in the streets and who can create chaos, and jail or kidnap people whenever he wants?” Mundaray says.
Human rights activists blame Cabello for delays within the launch of political prisoners, a authorities coverage introduced over every week in the past to foment nationwide unity. As well as, Cabello continues to slam dissidents on his weekly TV program, Con el Mazo Dando (“Hitting with the Hammer”). In a current episode, he branded opposition chief and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado as a “fugitive from Venezuelan justice.”
Not surprisingly, opposition figures who fled the nation say will probably be too harmful to return so long as Cabello and different hardliners, like Protection Minister Vladimir Padrino López who controls the navy, stay within the authorities.
Throughout a panel dialogue sponsored by Harvard College, Venezuelan economist Ricardo Hausmann stated: “Right now, I cannot go back. You have the colectivos in the streets. You have Diosdado Cabello as head of the police. So, the government in Venezuela is the same Chavista government we saw before.”
He says this might additional delay a transition to democracy that the Trump administration says it is usually looking for.
Trump has warned of a second wave of navy strikes ought to Maduro holdovers, like Cabello, step out of line. Cabello may attempt to lower a deal and go into exile. Another choice can be to lie low, cooperate with the interim authorities and attempt to outlast Trump.
“If he expects to stay out of prison and avoid Maduro’s fate his best opportunity lies in coordinating with Delcy Rodríguez, at least for now,” Ramsey stated. “But that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up his longstanding ambitions.”
