Federal prosecutors in Miami have been instructed by the Trump administration to halt criminal investigations targeting Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who has long been monitored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former law enforcement officials. The directive signals improving diplomatic relations between Washington and the oil-rich South American nation.
Whether prosecutors had connected Rodríguez to criminal activity or were preparing charges remains unknown. A Justice Department representative stated via email that “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”
However, DEA documents acquired by The Associated Press this year reveal that Rodríguez has repeatedly appeared in federal law enforcement reports since at least 2018, despite never facing criminal charges in the United States unlike other high-ranking Venezuelan officials.
The order to halt scrutiny of Rodríguez aimed to prevent interference with the administration’s efforts to bring stability to Venezuela following the arrest of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other considerations, according to an official. Whether the White House participated in this decision remains uncertain, as they directed inquiries to the Justice Department.
“Everybody has been told to stand down,” stated one former official.
The former officials, who received briefings on this development, along with the current official, all spoke to The Associated Press under anonymity because they lacked authorization to discuss internal matters publicly.
Rodríguez, a U.S. attorney representing her, and the Venezuelan Communications Ministry did not respond to comment requests.
Eliminating the possibility of charges, even temporarily, reduces pressure on Rodríguez while the Trump administration attempts to collaborate with the acting leader to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro’s removal and welcome U.S. investment to the country.
President Donald Trump called Rodríguez a “terrific person” shortly after the U.S. military transported Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal drug charges. Both have entered not guilty pleas.
Recently, the U.S. has removed sanctions against Rodríguez and acknowledged her as Venezuela’s singular head of state, enabling her to restore connections with western financial institutions and collaborate more freely with U.S. investors interested in accessing the world’s largest oil reserves. As relations between both governments have strengthened, some point to the Venezuelan approach — marked by oil embargoes, leadership indictments, and military intervention threats — as a blueprint for promoting internal regime change while the U.S. pressures other long-standing adversaries in Iran and Cuba.
Rodríguez and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, who leads the National Assembly, faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first presidency for their involvement in weakening Venezuelan democracy and solidifying Maduro’s authoritarian control.
Rodríguez “is doing a great job,” Trump posted on social media in early March. “The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see!”
In recent months, Rodríguez has organized events with numerous American oil executives, some participating in prominent delegations headed by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
Absent from all the mutual praise is any discussion of elections, despite Rodríguez exceeding a 90-day deadline last month established by Venezuela’s high court to temporarily occupy Maduro’s role.
“I don’t know,” she answered in English when a visiting U.S. journalist earlier this month called out a question about her timeline for conducting elections. “Some time.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has requested the administration justify its favorable approach toward Rodríguez, describing her as a “central figure in Nicolás Maduro’s repressive regime.”
“Sanctions have been lifted on Ms. Rodríguez without any indication that she has taken concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order,” Sheehan, alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, stated in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent last week.
Rick de la Torre, a former CIA chief of station in Caracas, explained that the decision to protect Rodríguez aligns with the Trump administration’s foreign policy objectives in Venezuela.
“She’s a lifelong Marxist and was a senior leader of one of the world’s most corrupt regimes but the U.S. is providing her with breathing space and carrots to lay the foundation for democracy and U.S. investment,” said de la Torre, the CEO of Tower Strategy, which advises companies on Venezuela.
“There’s a shelf life to her utility, however. At some point she will face justice,” he added.
The DEA had compiled an extensive intelligence file on Rodríguez from at least 2018, receiving accusations against her ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, the AP reported earlier this year. One confidential informant told DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money,” the records show.
Her name has appeared in nearly a dozen DEA investigations — several of which continued as recently as this year — involving field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. She had also been connected to Maduro’s alleged financial operative, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities first detained in 2020 on money-laundering charges, the records show.
Rodríguez expelled Saab this month during a cleanup of insider businessmen accused of enriching themselves through corrupt arrangements with Maduro.
Which Miami investigations mentioned Rodríguez’s name remains unclear. Two former officials said Rodríguez has also been discussed in meetings with investigators in Tampa assigned last year by former Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine financial crimes in Venezuela.
At that time, Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president. Justice Department policy requires the attorney general to personally authorize charging any foreign head of state, who typically enjoy immunity from prosecution under international and U.S. law.
The suspension of investigations into Rodríguez occurs as the Trump administration has similarly slowed ongoing federal investigations into another prominent Latin American leftist, Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The DEA had also labeled Petro a “priority target” due to alleged connections to drug traffickers that federal prosecutors had investigated for months. The New York Times reported in March that U.S. officials recently assured the Colombian government Petro does not face charges in those cases.
Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who worked for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, said it would be “deeply troubling” for law enforcement to be “told to stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons.”
“The White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch,” Levin told AP. “DOJ decisions are supposed to be based on law, evidence, policy and public safety — not on whether a foreign official is useful to the administration at a given moment.”
