The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to stand down from criminal investigations into Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials.
The directive represents the clearest signal yet of Washington's warming relations with Caracas following the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro — and a stark example of law enforcement priorities bending to strategic interests across Latin America.
According to an exclusive report by the Associated Press, DEA records obtained earlier this year show that Rodríguez has been consistently on U.S. federal authorities' radar since at least 2018, though she has never been formally indicted in the United States — unlike numerous other senior Venezuelan officials.
It remains unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any specific crimes or were preparing formal charges. A Department of Justice spokesperson told the AP via email that "there was never an investigation into her that could be dropped."
But the directive to prosecutors was designed to avoid hampering the administration's efforts to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro's detention, among other reasons, one official explained. It is not clear whether the White House was directly involved in the decision.
"Everyone has been told to stand down," said one former official who had been briefed on the matter. All sources spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly.




