What happened in the inner circle of power in Venezuela before Maduro was arrested

Delcy Rodriguez began communicating with US officials when she was Maduro's vice president.

A dramatic secret agreement was reached between top leaders in Washington and Caracas before the US arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Delcy Rodriguez and her brother, who are close to Maduro, assured the US that they would cooperate if Maduro left. An investigation by the influential British newspaper The Guardian has uncovered sensational details of the secret diplomatic communication in the inner circle of power.

Citing four high-level sources, the newspaper said that Delcy Rodriguez, who was sworn in as acting president in place of Maduro on January 5, and her brother, the head of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, secretly told US and Qatari officials through intermediaries that they would welcome Maduro's departure.

The Guardian’s investigation found that Delcy Rodriguez had been in contact with US officials since she was Maduro’s vice president. The talks had been ongoing since last autumn and intensified after a key phone call between Trump and Maduro in late November. In that call, Trump asked Maduro to leave Venezuela, but Maduro rejected the demand.

Then, in December last year, a US official involved in the talks told the Guardian that Delcy Rodriguez told the US she was ready. “Delcy gave the message that Maduro needs to go,” he said. Another said she said, “I will work with whatever happens next.”

At first, the Trump administration’s Secretary of State and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, was reluctant to work with the government’s people, the sources said. But he later came to believe that Delcy Rodriguez was the most effective way to prevent chaos after Maduro’s departure.

And so the details of the cooperation that Delcy and Jorge Rodriguez had promised before Maduro’s capture have not been made public. In October, the Miami Herald reported that Delcy had offered to head an interim government in Qatar if Maduro stepped down. But those talks fell through. Reuters reported on Sunday that Venezuela’s Interior Minister and security forces commander, Diosdado Cabello, had also been in talks with the United States months before Maduro’s operation.

All sources say that the agreement with Delcy Rodriguez was a fine line. While he promised to help the United States if Maduro left, he did not promise to actively help remove him.

Hours after the operation, Trump himself implicitly confirmed the talks with Delcy Rodriguez. He told the New York Post that Delcy Rodriguez “supported” the initiative. “We’ve talked to him many times,” he said. “He understands, he understands everything.” The Venezuelan government did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the matter. The White House did not respond to detailed questions either.

The Guardian says that in addition to these secret talks, there were also official talks between the Trump administration and the Maduro government. Just 10 days after Trump’s inauguration, Maduro met with his close aide Rick Grenell to discuss the issue of US prisoners. Some of the prisoners were released shortly after.

Sources say that Trump’s top aides spoke regularly with Delcy and Jorge Rodriguez — particularly to coordinate the biweekly flights of Venezuelans deported from the US, the situation of Venezuelans detained in El Salvador, and the release of political prisoners.

Meanwhile, Delcy Rodriguez had close personal ties with Qatar. Members of the Qatari ruling family considered her a friend, the source said. Qatar recently gifted Trump a $400 million luxury jet for his use. This is an unprecedented gift from a foreign country to a US president. Qatar has used this goodwill to open more doors for Delcy in secret talks.

In October last year, the Miami Herald reported that Delcy had proposed that Maduro retire to a safe haven and that she would lead an interim government. That plan fell through, and Delcy vehemently denied the report. But many US officials have come to realize that she is not a hard-line ideological leader. Those who know her well say that some of her personal traits endear her to people. She drinks champagne, has a personal table tennis coach and likes to challenge foreign diplomats to games.

The US’s main goal was to prevent the country from destabilizing or spiraling into civil war after Maduro’s departure. “The biggest thing was to prevent it from becoming a failed state,” says one source. Then, in late autumn, Delcy and his brother began secret talks with the United States without Maduro’s knowledge. Then in November, Maduro spoke by phone with Trump and the following week it became clear that he would not give up power.

Of course, Delcy Rodriguez was a very risky proposition for him. While he was proposing to overthrow Maduro, he was also unwilling to openly betray Maduro. “He was afraid of Maduro,” one official said.

Then, when a U.S. military helicopter flew into Caracas in early January, Delcy Rodriguez was nowhere to be seen. At one point, rumors spread that he had fled to Moscow. However, two sources said that he was