{"id":17708,"date":"2026-01-07T07:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=17708"},"modified":"2026-01-07T07:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:35:48","slug":"venezuelas-new-president-steered-500000-to-trumps-inauguration-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=17708","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s new president steered $500,000 to Trump\u2019s inauguration\u2014in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2017, as political outsider Donald Trump headed to Washington, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez spotted an opening.<\/p>\n

\n

Then Venezuela\u2019s foreign minister, Rodr\u00edguez directed Citgo \u2014 a subsidiary of the state oil company \u2014 to make\u00a0a $500,000 donation to the president\u2019s inauguration<\/a>. With the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro struggling to feed Venezuela, Rodr\u00edguez gambled on a deal that would have opened the door to American investment. Around the same time, she saw that Trump\u2019s ex-campaign manager was hired as a lobbyist for Citgo, courted Republicans in Congress and tried to secure a\u00a0meeting with the head of Exxon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The charm offensive flopped. Within weeks of taking office, Trump, urged by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, made restoring Venezuela\u2019s democracy his driving focus in response to Maduro\u2019s crackdown on opponents. But the outreach did bear fruit for Rodr\u00edguez, making her a prominent face in U.S. business and political circles and paving the way for her own rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an ideologue, but a practical one,\u201d said Lee McClenny, a retired foreign service officer who was the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas during the period of Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s outreach. \u201cShe knew that Venezuela needed to find a way to resuscitate a moribund oil economy and seemed willing to work with the Trump administration to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade later, as Venezuela\u2019s interim president, Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s message \u2014 that Venezuela is open for business \u2014 seems to have persuaded Trump. In the days since\u00a0Maduro\u2019s stunning capture<\/a>\u00a0Saturday, he\u2019s alternately praised Rodr\u00edguez as a \u201cgracious\u201d American partner while threatening a similar fate as her former boss if she doesn\u2019t keep the ruling party in check and provide the U.S. with\u00a0\u201ctotal access\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to the country\u2019s vast oil reserves. One thing neither has mentioned is elections, something the constitution mandates must take place within 30 days of the presidency being permanently vacated.<\/p>\n

This account of Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s political rise is drawn from interviews with 10 former U.S. and Venezuelan officials as well as businessmen from both countries who\u2019ve had extensive dealings with Rodr\u00edguez and in some cases have known her since childhood. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from someone who they almost universally described as bookishly smart, sometimes charming but above all a cutthroat operator who doesn\u2019t tolerate dissent. Rodr\u00edguez didn\u2019t respond to AP requests for an interview.<\/p>\n

Father\u2019s murder hardens leftist outlook<\/h4>\n

Rodr\u00edguez entered the leftist movement started by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez late \u2014 and on the coattails of her older brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, who as head of the National Assembly swore her in as interim president Monday.<\/p>\n

Tragedy during their childhood fed a hardened leftist outlook that would stick with the siblings throughout their lives. In 1976 \u2014 when, amid the Cold War, U.S. oil companies, American political spin doctors and Pentagon advisers exerted great influence in Venezuela \u2014 a little-known urban guerrilla group\u00a0kidnapped a Midwestern businessman<\/a>. Rodriguez\u2019s father, a socialist leader, was picked up for questioning and died in custody.<\/p>\n

McClenny remembers Rodr\u00edguez bringing up the murder in their meetings and bitterly blaming the U.S. for being left fatherless at the age of 7. The crime would radicalize another leftist of the era: Maduro.<\/p>\n

Years later, while Jorge Rodr\u00edguez was a top electoral official under Ch\u00e1vez, he secured for his sister a position in the president\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

But she advanced slowly at first and clashed with colleagues who viewed her as a haughty know-it-all.<\/p>\n

In 2006, on a whirlwind international tour, Ch\u00e1vez booted her from the presidential plane and ordered her to fly home from Moscow on her own, according to two former officials who were on the trip. Ch\u00e1vez was upset because the delegation\u2019s schedule of meetings had fallen apart and that triggered a feud with Rodriguez, who was responsible for the agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was painful to watch how Ch\u00e1vez talked about her,\u201d said one of the former officials. \u201cHe would never say a bad thing about women but the whole flight home he kept saying she was conceited, arrogant, incompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days later, she was fired and never occupied another high-profile role with Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n

Political revival and soaring power under Maduro<\/h4>\n

Years later, in 2013, Maduro revived Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s career after Ch\u00e1vez died of cancer and he took over.<\/p>\n

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodr\u00edguez speaks English and spent large amounts of time in the United States. That gave her an edge in the internal power struggles among Chavismo \u2014 the movement started by Ch\u00e1vez, whose many factions include democratic socialists, military hardliners who Ch\u00e1vez led in a 1992 coup attempt and corrupt actors, some with ties to drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

Her more worldly outlook, and refined tastes, also made Rodr\u00edguez a favorite of the so-called \u201cboligarchs\u201d \u2014 a new elite that made fortunes during Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s Bolivarian revolution. One of those insiders, media tycoon Raul Gorr\u00edn, worked hand-in-glove with Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s back-channel efforts to mend relations with the first Trump administration and helped organize a\u00a0secret visit<\/a>\u00a0by Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, to Caracas in April 2018 for a meeting with Maduro. A few months later, U.S. federal prosecutors unsealed the first of\u00a0two money laundering indictments<\/a>\u00a0against Gorrin.<\/p>\n

After Maduro promoted Rodr\u00edguez to vice president in 2018, she gained control over large swaths of\u00a0Venezuela\u2019s oil economy<\/a>. To help manage the petro-state, she brought in foreign advisers with experience in global markets. Among them were two former finance ministers in Ecuador who helped run a dollarized, export-driven economy under fellow leftist Rafael Correa. Another key associate is French lawyer David Syed, who for years has been trying to renegotiate Venezuela\u2019s foreign debt in the face of crippling U.S. sanctions that make it impossible for Wall Street investors to get repaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe sacrificed her personal life for her political career,\u201d said one former friend.<\/p>\n

As she amassed more power, she crushed internal rivals. Among them: once powerful Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, who was jailed in 2024 as part of an anti-corruption crackdown spearheaded by Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

In her de-facto role as Venezuela\u2019s chief operating officer, Rodr\u00edguez proved a more flexible, trustworthy partner than Maduro. Some have likened her to a sort of Venezuelan Deng Xiaoping \u2014 the architect of modern China.<\/p>\n

Hans Humes, chief executive of Greylock Capital Management, said that experience will serve her well as she tries to jump-start the economy, unite Chavismo and shield Venezuela from stricter terms dictated by Trump. Imposing an opposition-led government right now, he said, could trigger bloodshed of the sort that ripped apart Iraq after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein and formed a provisional government including many leaders who had been exiled for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen how expats who have been outside of the country for too long think things should be the way it was before they left,\u201d said Humes, who has met with Maduro as well as Rodr\u00edguez on several occasions. \u201cYou need people who know how to work with how things are not how they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democracy deferred?<\/h4>\n

Where Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s more pragmatic leadership style leaves Venezuela\u2019s democracy is uncertain.<\/p>\n

Trump, in remarks after Maduro\u2019s capture, said Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado lacks the \u201crespect\u201d to govern Venezuela despite her handpicked candidate winning what the U.S. and other governments consider a landslide victory in 2024 presidential elections stolen by Maduro.<\/p>\n

Elliott Abrams, who served as special envoy to Venezuela during the first Trump administration, said it is impossible for the president to fulfill his goal of banishing criminal gangs, drug traffickers and Middle Eastern terrorists from the Western Hemisphere with the various factions of Chavismo sharing power.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing that Trump has said suggests his administration is contemplating a quick transition away from Delcy. No one is talking about elections,\u201d said Abrams. \u201cIf they think Delcy is running things, they are completely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2017, as political outsider Donald Trump headed to Washington, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez spotted an opening. Then Venezuela\u2019s foreign minister, Rodr\u00edguez directed Citgo \u2014 a subsidiary of the state oil company \u2014 to make\u00a0a $500,000 donation to the president\u2019s inauguration. With the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro struggling to feed Venezuela, Rodr\u00edguez gambled on a deal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":926,"featured_media":17709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nVenezuela\u2019s new president steered $500,000 to Trump\u2019s inauguration\u2014in 2017 | Unlock Informed Choices with Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez speaks English and spent large amounts of time in the United States.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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Goodman, The Associated Press","author_link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?author=926"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In 2017, as political outsider Donald Trump headed to Washington, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez spotted an opening. Then Venezuela\u2019s foreign minister, Rodr\u00edguez directed Citgo \u2014 a subsidiary of the state oil company \u2014 to make\u00a0a $500,000 donation to the president\u2019s inauguration. With the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro struggling to feed Venezuela, Rodr\u00edguez gambled on a deal…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/926"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}