Maduro Is Gone, and the Purge Has Begun

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/world/americas/delcy-rodriguez-maduro-allies-venezuela.html

https://archive.ph/gOu7I

Maduro Is Gone, and the Purge Has Begun
The successor to Venezuela’s captured President Nicolás Maduro is purging the people who kept him in power.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Mariana Martínez
April 18, 2026

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Oligarchs close to Mr. Maduro’s family have been snatched from their homes. His political allies have been summarily removed from their posts. His relatives have been sidelined from business deals and barred from media appearances.

The housecleaning is being carried out by Mr. Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is running the country under instructions from the Trump administration. The detentions and leadership purges have unfolded without public explanation, but often with the approval — and sometimes at the urging — of the White House, according to people close to Ms. Rodríguez’s government.

After Mr. Maduro was dragged off in January to a New York jail, Ms. Rodríguez presented herself as a reluctant and temporary stand-in for a fallen leader, denouncing his capture as an illegal attack on her country.

But now, with Mr. Maduro gone, she is dismantling his ruling coterie and embarking on the largest redistribution of power in Venezuela in decades.

The apparent ease with which U.S. forces snatched Mr. Maduro from a heavily guarded military base has fueled suspicion that he was betrayed by people who benefited from his downfall.

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