CIA Director John Ratcliffe meets with Venezuela

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with the interim president of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez for two hours Thursday in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, to “convey the message that the United States expects a better working relationship,” a U.S. official told News themezone on Friday.

The official described the trip as historic and noted that Ratcliffe was the first cabinet-level official to visit Venezuela since the American military operation to remove the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, almost two weeks ago.

At the meeting, first reported by The New York Times, Ratcliffe was said to have conveyed a warning that Venezuela must stop supporting drug trafficking.

“During the meeting in Caracas, Director Ratcliffe discussed possible opportunities for economic collaboration and that Venezuela can no longer be a safe haven for US adversaries, especially drug traffickers,” the official said.

The meeting occurred on the same day that President Trump met with the leader of the Venezuelan opposition María Corina Machado at the White House.

Although Trump has publicly praised Machado, the government appears to view Rodríguez (who was vice president during the Maduro government) as more capable to maintain stability in Venezuela in the short term.

This aligns with the findings of a CIA analytical assessment that modeled possible political leadership scenarios in Venezuela if Maduro were no longer president, News themezone can confirm. The analysis, which was conducted closely and reported to a limited group of senior administration officials, concluded that existing officials aligned with Maduro, including Rodríguez, would be best positioned to maintain near-term stability.

During his Senate confirmation hearings last year, Ratcliffe promised that, as he put it, the agency would become less risk-averse under his leadership. This visit to Caracas reflected the US intelligence chief’s belief that he would not ask CIA personnel to take risks that he himself would not take, the US official told News themezone.

News themezone previously reported that the CIA had a small team operating clandestinely on the ground in Venezuela as early as August to lay the groundwork for Maduro’s capture, including a human asset that helped it track down Maduro.

After months of preparation that included building a replica of Maduro’s compound and studying his daily habits, US forces arrived at the Venezuelan president’s residence shortly after 2 a.m. local time on January 3.

The surprise operation involved U.S. forces dismantling and disabling Venezuela’s air defense systems as U.S. military helicopters approached Caracas, and U.S. military personnel deployed weapons “to ensure safe passage of the helicopters to the target area,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said earlier this month.

Maduro was detained along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and brought to the United States to face charges including charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption.

Maduro and Flores appeared before US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in federal court in lower Manhattan on January 5.

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man.” mature said through an interpreter, insisting that “I was still president of my country.”

Maduro has long been accused of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, torture and repression during his rule in the South American country. He maintained his grip on power despite what the United States called “Overwhelming evidence” that he lost re-election in 2024 to oppose the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

UN experts at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed concern about the United States’ unilateral action to kidnap Maduro as a possible violation of international law.

“These actions represent a serious, blatant and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, set a dangerous precedent and risk destabilizing the entire region and the world,” the group said in a statement last week.