Hardline Venezuelan security chief could be targeted next if US demands not met — sources

By Reuters 7 January 2026, 3:30 am

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Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello delivers a speech during a women's rally in support of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in Caracas on January 6, 2026. (Federico Parra/AFP)

The Trump administration has put Venezuela’s hardline interior minister on notice that he could be at the top of its target list unless he helps interim president Delcy Rodriguez meet US demands and keep order following the toppling of Nicolas Maduro, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Diosdado Cabello, who controls security forces accused of widespread human rights abuses, is one of a handful of Maduro loyalists that President Donald Trump has decided to rely on as temporary rulers to maintain stability during a transition period, says one source briefed on the administration’s thinking.

US officials are especially concerned that Cabello, given his record of repression and history of rivalry with Rodriguez, could play the spoiler and are seeking to force his cooperation even as they look for ways to eventually push him out of power and into exile, says the source, who speaks on condition of anonymity.

In the meantime, they have communicated to Cabello via intermediaries that if he is defiant, he could face a similar fate to Maduro, the authoritarian leader captured in a US raid on Saturday and whisked away to New York to face prosecution on “narco-terrorism” charges, or could see his life in danger, the source says.

But taking out Cabello could be risky, possibly motivating pro-government motorcycle groups, known as colectivos, to take to the streets, unleashing the chaos Washington wants to avoid. Their reaction may depend on whether they feel protected by other officials, however.

Also on the list of potential targets is Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who, like Cabello, is under a US drug trafficking indictment and has a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, according to two sources.

“This remains a law enforcement operation, and we are not done yet,” says a US Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

US officials see Padrino’s collaboration as crucial for avoiding a power vacuum due to his command of the armed forces. They believe he is less dogmatic than Cabello and more likely to toe the US line while seeking his own safe exit, the source briefed on administration thinking says.