Maduro’s heirs: human rights violators, corrupt enforcers and ruthless loyalists

As the Trump medication escalates unit connected Venezuela, experts pass that Nicolás Maduro’s downfall could unfastened the doorway to a successor "even worse" than the dictator himself and unleash a scenery dominated by cause cartels, guerrilla factions and equipped warlords who person embedded themselves crossed Venezuela for decades.

Venezuela contiguous is little a centralized dictatorship and much a patchwork of transgression territories controlled by cartels, Colombian insurgents and regime-aligned militias. Analysts told Fox News Digital that U.S. argumentation present confronts not lone Maduro but an entrenched ecosystem of non-state equipped groups that could prehend powerfulness successful a post-Maduro vacuum.

Roxanna Vigil, a chap astatine the Council connected Foreign Relations and erstwhile U.S. nationalist information authoritative focused connected Latin America, said the trajectory is present binary.

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Venezuelan person Nicolás Maduro brandishes a sword during an lawsuit astatine the subject academy successful Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

"The mode I spot it, what comes adjacent volition mostly beryllium connected what absorption this U.S. unit run goes in," Vigil said. "If it goes successful the absorption of escalation and conflict, that means there’s going to beryllium precise small power — oregon adjacent little quality to power what comes next."

The danger, experts say, is not simply a stronger mentation of Maduro but the emergence of equipped actors who already power swaths of Venezuelan territory. Vigil said that an uncontrolled illness could unleash thing acold much unsafe than the existent regime. "You could person idiosyncratic perchance worse than Maduro," she said.

Jason Marczak, vice president and elder manager astatine the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, told Fox News Digital those powerfulness centers see immoderate of the astir convulsive transgression syndicates successful the Western Hemisphere.

Bolivarian National Police occurrence teardrop state toward absorption demonstrators successful Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. Venezuelan information forces backed by h2o tanks and teardrop state dispersed groups of anti-government demonstrators who tried to artifact Caracas' main road Saturday evening. (AP Photo/Alejandro Cegarra)

"It’s hard to ideate things getting immoderate worse than they are nether Nicolás Maduro. But what’s captious is not conscionable Maduro leaving, but those astir him — those who volition lone beryllium further perpetrators of the injustices that Maduro puts guardant — that nary of them are allowed to conscionable travel to power."

If either absorption person María Corina Machado oregon Edmundo González neglect to capable the vacuum successful a post-Maduro Venezuela, experts constituent to a crowded tract of unsafe actors who could effort to prehend powerfulness if Maduro abruptly falls.

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Diosdado Cabello

Diosdado Cabello emerges arsenic the astir feared and influential fig successful the regime. La Nación describes him arsenic the longtime fig 2 of Chavismo, with sweeping power implicit enactment machinery and the propaganda apparatus. His powerfulness stretches from interior governmental enforcement to the interior and justness portfolios.

Cabello was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury successful 2018 for corruption, wealth laundering, embezzlement and links to drug-trafficking networks wrong the state. Reuters reporting documented however the United States aboriginal accrued rewards for accusation starring to his apprehension arsenic portion of broader efforts to people the Cartel de los Soles. Analysts accidental a authorities headed by Cabello could consolidate enactment power, authorities information forces and media power nether a azygous hardline operator.

Minister of Interior and Justice Diosdado Cabello (C) talks to the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez (L) arsenic Vice President of the Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez (R) looks connected astatine Simon Bolivar International Airport connected July 18, 2025, successful Caracas, Venezuela.  (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)

Jorge Rodríguez 

Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and 1 of Maduro’s closest governmental operators, is different elder fig positioned for immoderate succession scenario. La Nación highlights his prominence wrong the ruling elite, noting his roles arsenic mayor, communications minister, and cardinal strategist.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Rodríguez for actions that undermine antiauthoritarian institutions, according to an Atlantic Council summary of OFAC designations. Experts caution that Rodríguez could enforce a much technocratic — but nary little authoritarian — mentation of Chavismo, pairing dialog skills with power implicit electoral processes and authorities accusation systems.

Vladimir Padrino López 

Vladimir Padrino López, Venezuela’s long-serving defence minister, is portrayed by La Nación arsenic the backbone of the subject constitution and the guarantor of Maduro’s survival. The equipped forces stay loyal due to the fact that of him, forming an axis of powerfulness betwixt Padrino and Maduro.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Padrino López arsenic portion of Maduro’s interior ellipse for sustaining an authoritarian strategy and enabling repression. Observers pass that if Padrino were to presume leadership, Venezuela could displacement toward an adjacent much militarized exemplary — 1 successful which governmental authorization is openly fused with subject bid structures.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuela's defence minister, speaks during a property league accompanied by the subject precocious bid astatine the Ministry of Defense successful Caracas, Venezuela, connected Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. (Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Delcy Rodríguez 

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s vice president, is described arsenic a cardinal governmental relation wrong the authorities and portion of a almighty governing duo with her member Jorge. Her power spans institutional, economical and diplomatic spheres. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Rodríguez arsenic portion of Maduro’s interior ellipse for helping dismantle antiauthoritarian governance, and the European Union lists her nether measures for quality rights violations and the erosion of the regularisation of law.

Analysts enactment that Rodríguez has progressively taken power of captious sectors, including the lipid industry, placing her astatine the halfway of the opaque gross structures that prolong the regime. A modulation led by her, they warn, could tighten authorities power implicit the system and governmental apparatus adjacent further.

Cilia Flores, woman of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, talks to the media during a simulation of the government's authoritative July 30 ballot for a caller assembly, successful Caracas, Venezuela July 16, 2017.  Marco Bello/ Reuters

Cilia Flores

Cilia Flores, the archetypal woman and a longtime Chavista powerfulness broker, rounds retired the ellipse of figures identified by La Nación arsenic indispensable to Maduro’s clasp connected power. Flores has held elder positions, including National Assembly president, lawyer general, and subordinate of the PSUV leadership.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Flores successful 2018 arsenic portion of broader actions targeting Maduro’s interior ellipse and their networks of corruption, a determination wide reported by Reuters. Her household members person besides faced sanctions oregon indictments linked to narcotics cases. Analysts accidental Flores’s governmental scope and power wrong the enactment and the ineligible strategy marque her a pivotal histrion successful immoderate succession calculus.

In this April 13, 2019, record photo, Gen. Ivan Hernandez Dala, (L), caput of some the statesmanlike defender and subject counterintelligence, and Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, (R), successful Caracas, Venezuela.  (Ariana Cubillos/AP)

Iván Hernández Dala 

Hernández Dala heads Venezuela’s subject counterintelligence work (DGCIM) and commands the statesmanlike guard, making him 1 of the astir feared figures successful the information apparatus. His power implicit interior repression gives him important leverage successful immoderate powerfulness struggle. He was designated by the State Department successful 2019 for his engagement successful gross violations of quality rights.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) wrote that nether his bid "Abuses reportedly carried retired by the DGCIM and SEBIN see brutal beatings, asphyxiation, cutting soles of feet with razor blades, electrical shocks, and decease threats." 

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Marczak and Vigil beieve Washington’s adjacent moves — and whether they thrust dialog oregon escalation — volition find whether Venezuela moves toward ideology oregon toward thing adjacent worse.

As Marczak enactment it: "A triumph isn’t conscionable Nicolás Maduro leaving… A triumph is really a modulation to antiauthoritarian forces."