A $25 million reward was offered for his arrest.. America secretly communicated with the second most powerful man in Venezuela before Maduro was arrested

Several sources said that officials from the administration of US President Donald Trump contacted the Venezuelan Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, months before the US operation to arrest President Nicolas Maduro, and that they have been in contact with him since then.

Four sources reported that officials warned Kabio (62 years old) against using the security services or supporters of the ruling party he supervises to target the opposition in the country. The security apparatus, which includes the intelligence services, police, and armed forces, still has great influence after the American operation that took place on January 3.

Cabello was named in the same US drug trafficking indictment that the Trump administration used as a pretext to arrest Maduro, but he was not arrested in the operation.

Two informed sources reported that the communication with Cabello, which also touched on the US sanctions imposed on him and the charges against him, dates back to the first days of the current Trump administration, and continued during the weeks preceding the overthrow of Maduro. Four of the sources said that the US administration has also been communicating with Cabello since the overthrow of the Venezuelan president.

These communications, which have not been previously disclosed, are critical to the Trump administration’s efforts to control the situation inside Venezuela. According to a source familiar with American concerns, if Cabello decides to unleash the forces he controls, this will cause the chaos that Trump seeks to avoid, and threaten Acting President Delcy Rodriguez’s grip on power. It was not clear whether the Trump administration’s discussions with Cabello included issues related to the future of governance in Venezuela. It is not clear whether Cabello responded to the American warnings. He has publicly pledged to work with Rodriguez, whom Trump has so far praised.

While the United States views Rodriguez as a cornerstone of Trump’s post-Maduro strategy, Cabello is widely believed to have the ability to keep those plans on track or turn them upside down.

A source familiar with the talks said that the Venezuelan minister is in contact with the Trump administration directly and through intermediaries. All sources requested anonymity so that they could speak freely about sensitive internal government communications with Cabello.

Cabello is a staunch Maduro loyalist

Cabello has long been considered the second most powerful figure in Venezuela. He was a close advisor to the late President Hugo Chavez and then became one of the staunchest loyalists of Maduro, a man with the prestige of being in control of the security services. Rodriguez and Cabello were at the heart of the government, parliament and the ruling Socialist Party for years, but they were not close allies.

March Cabello, a former military officer, has influence over the country’s military and civilian intelligence services, which conduct extensive internal espionage operations. It has close links with pro-government militias, particularly colectivos, groups of armed civilians riding motorcycles that have been used to attack protesters.

Cabello is one of a handful of Maduro loyalists whom Washington has relied on to temporarily run the country to maintain stability until it can access the OPEC member nation’s oil reserves during an indefinite transition period.

Interviews conducted by Reuters with sources in Venezuela showed that Rodriguez is working to strengthen her power by appointing her loyalists to key positions to protect herself from internal threats, while meeting US demands to increase oil production.

Elliot Abrams, who served as Trump’s special representative for Venezuela in his first term, said many Venezuelans expect Cabello to be fired at some point if they want the democratic transition to move forward.
“If he leaves, Venezuelans will know that the regime has already begun to change,” explained Abrams, who now works at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

US sanctions and accusations

Cabello has long been under US sanctions for drug trafficking. In 2020, the United States offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and he was charged with involvement mainly in the “Los Solis Cartel,” a group the United States described as a Venezuelan drug trafficking network led by members of the government.
The United States later increased the reward value to $25 million. Cabello publicly denied any connection to drug trafficking.

In the hours that followed Maduro’s overthrow, some analysts and politicians in Washington wondered why Cabello was not also arrested in the American operation, especially since his name appeared second in the indictment issued by the Department of Justice against Maduro.

“I know that Diosdado is probably worse than Maduro and worse than Delce,” US House Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on January 11.

In the following days, Cabello denounced American intervention in the country, saying in a speech, “Venezuela will not surrender.”

But media reports of residents being searched at security points, sometimes by uniformed security personnel and sometimes by people in civilian clothes, have declined over the past few days.

Both Trump and the Venezuelan government said that many detainees, whom the opposition and human rights organizations describe as political prisoners, will be released.

The government said that Cabello, as interior minister, is overseeing these efforts. Human rights organizations say that the pace of releases is very slow and that hundreds are still in arbitrary detention.