Maduro Is Gone, and the Purge Has Begun • The successor to Venezuela’s captured President Nicolás Maduro is purging the people who kept him in power.

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U.S. Special Forces brought down President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela swiftly and publicly.

Now, the people who kept him in power are being purged gradually and inconspicuously. Some have been fired or detained, and others are anxiously looking over their shoulders, worried they might be next.

Oligarchs close to Mr. Maduro’s family have been snatched from their homes. His political allies have been summarily removed from their posts. His relatives have been sidelined from business deals and barred from media appearances.

In the three months since Mr. Maduro’s capture, Ms. Rodríguez has changed 17 ministers, replaced military commanders and installed new diplomats. She has also overseen the detention of at least three businessmen tied to Mr. Maduro, fired several of his relatives and cut off most of his family from oil contracts.

In their places, she has appointed her own loyalists or championed businessmen beholden to her, while opening the doors to American oil and mining investors.

The housecleaning is being carried out by Mr. Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is running the country under instructions from the Trump administration. The detentions and leadership purges have unfolded without public explanation, but often with the approval — and sometimes at the urging — of the White House, according to people close to Ms. Rodríguez’s government.

She is dismantling his ruling coterie and embarking on the largest redistribution of power in Venezuela in decades.

Ms. Rodríguez is now using that threat of U.S. coercion to go after ruling party power brokers once considered untouchable. The result has been a political win for Mr. Trump and Ms. Rodríguez, allowing U.S. officials to settle scores with Maduro allies who had defied them, while simultaneously cementing Ms. Rodríguez’s leadership.

Venezuela’s transformation from U.S. adversary to a protectorate has been head spinning for most Venezuelans.

The apparent ease with which U.S. forces snatched Mr. Maduro from a heavily guarded military base has fueled suspicion that he was betrayed by people who benefited from his downfall. The Trump administration had been considering Ms. Rodríguez as Mr. Maduro’s successor since 2025, and had indirect contact with her.

“We are not handing down a legacy of traitors and cowards,” Ms. Rodríguez said a week after Mr. Maduro’s capture, leading a retinue of power brokers. Most of those by her side that day have since been cast aside.

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