Lee nuestra coberatura en español.
In the wee hours of Saturday, shortly after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured, blindfolded and brought to the United States, video emerged of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello surrounded by a bunch of armed males in Caracas.
Maduro’s abduction “was a criminal, terrorist attack against our people,” mentioned Cabello, clad in a bulletproof vest and helmet. The sky was nonetheless darkish, and the thrill of drones might be heard overhead.
“I ask people to stay calm,” Cabello continued. “Trust our leadership. Trust in our military and political leaders during the situation we’re facing.”
That morning, US Attorney General Pam Bondi released the unsealed US indictment in opposition to Maduro, accusing him of drug trafficking, amongst different offenses. Cabello’s title was the second on the indictment, slightly below Maduro’s. With Maduro in US custody, Cabello is arguably essentially the most powerful Venezuelan official named in the superseding indictment.
“There’s essentially three centers of power in Venezuela right now,” mentioned Brian Fonseca, a professor at Florida International University. “You have the Maduro center of gravity, which (acting president) Delcy Rodríguez is an extension of. You have (Vladimir) Padrino López, who is minister of defense. The third, arguably the most important, is Diosdado Cabello.”
Saturday’s indictment was not the primary time the US had focused Cabello. In 2018, the US Treasury sanctioned Cabello, his spouse and his brother for “narcotics trafficking.”
Two years later, the US formally indicted him, placing a $10 million bounty on his head (since raised to $25 million) and charging that he was a key determine in the “Cartel de los Soles,” an alleged drug-trafficking community headed by figures inside Venezuela’s authorities. For his half, Cabello has denied being a drug trafficker, calling the accusations a “big lie.”
Cabello, 62, is likely one of the final remaining regime officers from the late president Hugo Chávez’s previous guard, a real believer in the trigger who personally participated in Chávez’s failed coup in 1992.
“He was actually in the group of tanks that tried to ram their way into the presidential palace,” Elías Ferrer, director and founding father of Orinoco Research, informed NCS in November. “I think that gives us a good idea of who he is.”
Cabello helped Chávez construct his political motion and ultimately served as his vp. During a short, aborted anti-Chávez coup d’etat in 2002, Cabello even grew to become president himself for just a few hours earlier than stepping apart to enable Chávez to return to energy.
Appointed interior minister in 2024, Cabello now instructions the state’s huge equipment of inner repression. Rights advocates have accused Cabello’s Interior Ministry of stewarding a crackdown marketing campaign as tensions rose with the United States in late 2025, together with political kidnappings and disappearances.
In November, Ámbar Castillo denounced Cabello after the disappearance of her daughter Samanta, who vanished after police detained her at their household dwelling in western Caracas.
“I hold Diosdado Cabello, the minister of interior and justice, responsible for the persecution our family is facing,” Castillo mentioned in a video posted on social media.
Cabello additionally instructions militia members loyal to the state. Since Maduro’s abduction, the minister has posted quite a few movies on social media of militias patrolling the streets of Caracas. In one of many movies, armed males shout, “Loyal always, traitors never!”
“He’s got enormous influence right now over these internal mechanisms of security and intelligence,” mentioned Fonseca, the Florida International University professor. “I think that puts him probably in one of the most privileged places in terms of influence within the regime today, more so than Delcy, and I think even more so than Padrino López.”
Unlike Rodríguez and Padrino, Cabello can be an entertainer. Shortly after Chávez died of most cancers in 2013, Cabello started internet hosting a gossipy speak present each week on Venezuelan tv referred to as “Con el Mazo Dando” — Spanish for “Hitting it with the Club.”
The present, which regularly runs over three hours, is filmed in entrance of a reside studio viewers. The format is straightforward: Cabello cracks jokes, shares what he claims is unique intelligence concerning Venezuela’s enemies and makes enjoyable of American politicians.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a favourite goal, with Cabello typically calling him “the Crazy Cuban.” On the episode broadcast simply earlier than Maduro was captured, Cabello sarcastically referred to US President Donald Trump as “Lord Emperor.”
Despite the jokey ambiance, rights advocates have denounced “Con el Mazo Dando” as one other instrument of repression. In July 2025, Amnesty International criticized Cabello for asserting the arrest of a journalist on this system. The group had beforehand accused Cabello in 2015 of utilizing the present as a platform to “harass” activists.
Fonseca believes that Cabello’s future, like that of many figures in Venezuela’s regime, is in jeopardy.
“Cabello is in survival mode,” Fonseca mentioned. “If the Americans can go in and capture Maduro, that’s a message to Cabello, Rodríguez and Padrino: No one is untouchable.”
The interior minister is in a uniquely poor place to make a cope with the United States, Fonseca defined. Alongside the heavy sanctions and indictments in opposition to him, his private beliefs would possibly impede any compromise.
“He’s either going to moderate, or he’s gone,” Fonseca mentioned. “He’s spent his entire life in opposition to the United States. That’s really hard to back away from. I think his best chances are exile, or jail, or he fights to the death.”