CIA chief meets Venezuela’s interim leader (PHOTOS)

John Ratcliffe travelled to Caracas less than two weeks after his agents helped to kidnap Delcy Rodriguez’s predecessor

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez in Caracas on Thursday, just 12 days after US forces captured her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, in a deadly raid conducted using the agency’s intelligence.

An unnamed US official told media on Friday that Ratcliffe had delivered US President Donald Trump’s message that Washington “looks forward to an improved working relationship” and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and ending Venezuela’s role as a “safe haven for America’s adversaries.” 

Several photographs circulating online show Rodriguez shaking hands with the CIA chief, whose agents helped abduct Maduro from his compound – an operation so precise that US intelligence even knew what he was eating and what pets were present.

The meeting signals Washington’s decisive pivot toward Rodriguez’s government, composed largely of Maduro loyalists, and away from the opposition, led by Nobel laureate María Corina Machado.

Just hours before Ratcliffe landed, Machado was at the White House presenting her Nobel Peace Prize medal to the US president in a symbolic appeal for support. Trump called it a “wonderful gesture” but pointedly did not endorse her claim to the presidency.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Caracas, Venezuela yesterday, meeting Acting President Delcy Rodriguez and other top Venezuelan officials.

Photos from Central Intelligence Agency pic.twitter.com/OlWV8g0Uhi

— Benjamin Hall (@BenjaminHallFNC) January 16, 2026

Trump articulated the rationale on Friday, arguing that dismantling Venezuela’s government and security apparatus would risk chaos and insisting Rodriguez offers a “controlled, stable, and effective” transition. “Remember Iraq,” he told reporters. “They fired everyone and it ended up being ISIS.”

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US officials have acknowledged that CIA assessments last year framed Rodriguez, then Maduro’s vice president, as a pragmatic figure willing to negotiate. According to the New York Times, one intelligence report noted she wore a $15,000 dress at her inauguration, prompting an official to joke that she was “the most capitalistic socialist” they had seen.

After taking power, Rodriguez initially declared defiantly that no “foreign agent” would control Venezuela or turn it into a “colony.”

However, she has since moved to align with Washington’s demands, including opening Venezuela’s oil sector to US companies and cooperating on security.

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Trump praised Rodriguez as a “terrific person” after their phone call earlier this week, noting “tremendous progress” and promising a “spectacular” partnership on oil and national security. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that sanctions relief could follow soon.

Last week, Rodriguez declared seven days of mourning for the victims of the US raid. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced on Friday that the latest death toll stands at 83, including 47 Venezuelan troops, 32 Cuban advisors, and several civilians, while over a hundred were injured.