Leaked video shows officials coordinating after reported US capture of Maduro

A leaked recording of a nearly two-hour meeting in Venezuela captures acting president Delcy Rodríguez on speakerphone claiming that, when US forces captured Nicolás Maduro, she and other cabinet members were given 15 minutes to decide whether to comply "or they would kill us." The video, first reported by the local journalism collective La Hora de Venezuela, was held seven days after the US attack and shows regime-friendly influencers and officials scrambling to control the narrative.

Freddy Ñáñez, then communications minister, put Rodríguez on speakerphone and sought to shut down what he called "gossip, rumours, intrigues and attempts at discrediting" her, arguing she was "the only guarantee we have" to bring back the president and reconfigure their forces. On the call Rodríguez said the threats and blackmail were "constant" and listed three goals: "to preserve peace … to rescue our hostages … and to preserve political power." She also said US troops initially told them Maduro and his wife had been assassinated and that she, her brother and Diosdado Cabello replied they "were ready to share the same fate." The meeting appears to have been recorded on a videoconferencing platform; it remains unclear how the video was leaked and neither the Venezuelan nor the US governments responded to requests for comment.

Key Topics

World, Delcy Rodriguez, Nicolas Maduro, Freddy Nanez, Diosdado Cabello, Trump Administration