As the smoke clears from the lightning U.S. raid that captured Nicolás Maduro, Caracas has officially entered a 90-day transition phase under Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, while the Pentagon confirms the operation claimed the lives of 55 Venezuelan and Cuban troops.
Venezuela began its first full day of a precarious transition Wednesday (January 7, 2026), following the formal swearing-in of Delcy Rodríguez as Interim President. The shift in power comes as the U.S. Department of Defense and Caracas officials provided the first complete casualty count from “Operation Absolute Resolve,” confirming 55 personnel, including 23 Venezuelan security officers and 32 members of Cuba’s elite “Black Wasp” special forces, were killed during the extraction of Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
In her first address from the Miraflores Palace, President Rodríguez tried to strike a delicate balance, designed to stabilize a nation currently under effective U.S. military quarantine.
- 90-Day Mandate: Rodríguez, supported by the Venezuelan military high command, has been given a three-month window to stabilize the economy and organize “future electoral processes,” though no date has been set.
- The ‘Agenda of Cooperation’: Despite calling the U.S. raid an “atrocity,” Rodríguez has formally invited the Trump administration to discuss a joint agenda. Analysts suggest this is a calculated move to prevent the “second strike” threatened by President Trump earlier this week.
- Consolidating Power: Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, remains President of the National Assembly, making sure the legislative and executive branches stay tightly controlled by the siblings during the transition.
From Washington, President Trump has made it clear the price of Venezuelan stability will be paid in crude.
- The 50M Barrel Extraction: Trump repeated his plan for Venezuela to “turn over” between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil currently sitting in storage. He stressed the billions in revenue would be managed by the U.S. Executive to “rebuild the country” and reimburse U.S. interests.
- The Friday Summit: The White House has summoned CEOs from Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips for a Friday meeting to discuss the immediate “re-pumping” of Venezuelan oil fields, which have seen production stall amid the chaos.
While Caracas transitions, the man who led it for over a decade, Nicolás Maduro, remains in a high-security cell in Brooklyn.
- The Arraignment: Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty to a 2020 federal indictment charging them with narco-terrorism and using “cocaine as a weapon.”
- Next Hearing: The court has set a preliminary hearing for late January, as U.S. prosecutors begin unsealing evidence gathered during the 2025 intelligence surge that came before the raid.
The transition remains contested on the global stage. At the UN Security Council, Russia and China have refused to recognize the Rodríguez interim government, calling it a “puppet of an illegal intervention.” Meanwhile, Colombia and Mexico have expressed deep unease, fearing Trump’s success in Caracas might encourage similar “law enforcement operations” against cartels on their own soil.
The next 72 hours are considered “high risk” as the IRGC-backed elements in Venezuela and Cuban remnants decide whether to mount an insurgency or accept the transition. With 15,000 U.S. troops stationed off the coast and the first tankers of “sanctioned oil” prepared to move toward the Gulf of Mexico, the 2026 Venezuela crisis has shifted from a hot conflict into a complex, high-stakes diplomatic chess match.
Also Read / Operation Absolute Resolve: U.S. forces capture Nicolás Maduro in lightning strike.
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