{"id":89609,"date":"2026-05-28T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/89609\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:44:11","slug":"ap-exclusive-trump-administration-tells-prosecutors-to-stand-down-on-venezuela-leader-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/89609\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Exclusive: Trump administration tells prosecutors to stand down on Venezuela leader, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2013 The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela\u2019s acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodr\u00edguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email \u201cthere was never an investigation into her to shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press<\/a> earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the U.S. like several other senior Venezuelan officials.<\/p>\n

The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodr\u00edguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration\u2019s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, among other reasons, the official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has been told to stand down,\u201d one of the former officials said. <\/p>\n

The former officials, who had been briefed on the development, as well as the current official all spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez, a U.S. attorney representing her and the Venezuelan Communications Ministry didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The move eases pressure on Rodriguez<\/p>\n

Removing the threat of potential indictment, even temporarily, eases pressure on Rodr\u00edguez as the Trump administration seeks to work with the acting leader to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro\u2019s ouster and open the country to U.S. investment.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump praised Rodr\u00edguez as a \u201cterrific person\u201d shortly after the U.S. military took Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal narcotics charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

In recent months, the U.S. has lifted<\/a> sanctions against Rodr\u00edguez and recognized her as Venezuela’s sole head of state, allowing her to re-establish ties with western banks and more freely work with U.S. investors seeking to tap into the world’s largest petroleum reserves. As ties between the two governments have deepened, some have held out the Venezuelan playbook \u2014 characterized by oil blockades, indictments of top leaders, and threats of military intervention \u2014 as a model to drive regime change from within as the U.S. pressures other longtime adversaries in Iran and Cuba.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez and her brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, the head of the National Assembly, were hit with U.S. sanctions during Trump\u2019s first term for their role in undermining Venezuelan democracy and cementing Maduro’s authoritarian rule. <\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez \u201cis doing a great job,\u201d Trump wrote 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!\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent months, Rodr\u00edguez has hosted ceremonies with a steady stream of American oilmen, some of them partaking in high-profile delegations<\/a> led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. <\/p>\n

Election talk deferred amid Trump’s praise<\/p>\n

Missing in all the mutual backslapping is any talk of elections in Venezuela, even as Rodr\u00edguez last month blew through a 90-day limit<\/a> set by Venezuela’s high court to fill Maduro’s position on a temporary basis. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she responded in English when a visiting U.S. journalist earlier this month shouted out a question about her time frame for holding elections. \u201cSome time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick de la Torre, a former CIA chief of station in Caracas, said that the decision to halt any criminal investigations into Rodr\u00edguez fits well with the Trump administration\u2019s foreign policy goals in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a lifelong Marxist and was a senior leader of one of the world\u2019s 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,\u201d said de la Torre, the CEO of Tower Strategy, which advises companies seeking to do business in Venezuela. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a shelf life to her utility, however. At some point she will face justice.,” he added.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez has been on DEA’s radar since 2018<\/p>\n

The DEA had amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodr\u00edguez dating to at least 2018, and has received allegations about her ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, the AP reported earlier this year<\/a>. One confidential informant told DEA in early 2021 that Rodr\u00edguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita \u201cas a front to launder money,\u201d the records show. <\/p>\n

Her name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations \u2014 several of which remained ongoing as recently as this year \u2014 involving field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. She had even been linked to Maduro\u2019s alleged bag man, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities first arrested in 2020 on money-laundering charges, the records show. <\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez deported Saab<\/a> this month as part of a purge of insider businessmen who are accused of having enriched themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear in which Miami investigations Rodr\u00edguez’s name surfaced. Two of the former officials said Rodr\u00edguez has also come up in meetings with investigators in Tampa tasked last year by former Attorney General Pam Bondi with looking into financial crimes in Venezuela. <\/p>\n

At the time, Rodr\u00edguez was serving as Maduro’s vice president. Justice Department policy requires the attorney general to personally approve the charging of any foreign head of state, who are normally immune from prosecution under international and U.S. law.<\/p>\n

Halting high-profile criminal probes of foreign leaders<\/p>\n

The pausing of the investigations into Rodr\u00edguez comes as the Trump administration has similarly tapped the brakes on ongoing federal investigations into another prominent Latin American leftist, Colombian President Gustavo Petro<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The DEA had also designated Petro a \u201cpriority target\u201d over alleged ties to drug traffickers<\/a> that had been probed for months by federal prosecutors. The New York Times reported in March that U.S. officials recently assured the Colombian government Petro does not face charges in those cases. <\/p>\n

Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who worked for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Brooklyn, said it would be \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d for federal law enforcement to be \u201ctold to stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch,\u201d Levin told AP. \u201cDOJ decisions are supposed to be based on law, evidence, policy and public safety \u2014 not on whether a foreign official is useful to the administration at a given moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

___ Durkin Richer reported from Washington and Mustian from New York. AP Writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary \u201cCrisis in Venezuela,\u201d which aired Feb. 10, 2026, on PBS. Watch the documentary at pbs.org\/frontline<\/a>, in the PBS App<\/a> and on FRONTLINE\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[48687,3792,12,3790,48686,21997,3393,3395,4087,74,1194,52],"class_list":["post-89609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump","tag-alex-saab","tag-christopher-wright","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-burgum","tag-duncan-levin","tag-gustavo-petro","tag-jorge-rodriguez","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-pam-bondi","tag-trump","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116649437655669699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}