Yesterday, Delcy Rodríguez became the first-ever female head of state of Venezuela. However, what might otherwise have been celebrated as an historic milestone in a country known for its male-dominated, militarized power structures, was overshadowed by the unprecedented events that led to her promotion.
Until last week, Rodríguez, 56, was Venezuela’s vice president, a role that she has held since 2018. So trusted was she by Nicholás Maduro, the country’s ousted president who is currently detained in a New York City jail on charges related to alleged drug trafficking and weapons, that she simultaneously held additional roles, including minister of economy and finance and minister of petroleum. It’s her mastery of the latter, it has been reported, that led President Trump to select Rodríguez as Maduro’s replacement—for the time being, at least. (At her swearing in, she was announced as “interim president.”)
Some have expressed surprise that Trump didn’t choose María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize winning opposition leader, to run the country in Maduro’s absence. After all, Machado, 58, an anti-socialist advocate of economic liberalism, has repeatedly praised the U.S. government’s campaign against Maduro and even dedicated her Nobel prize to Trump in October of last year. Surely she would have been a safe bet to advance the U.S.’s goals in the country, which include rebuilding its oil industry under American influence? Not according to Trump who, in recent days, has dismissed Machado as a “nice woman” who “doesn’t have the respect to be a leader.” Whatever your politics, it’s an interesting description for a woman who won the presidential opposition primary in 2024 and was then blocked from running by the Maduro government.
U.S. officials suggest that despite Rodríguez’s condemnations of Maduro’s ousting, she is viewed by the administration as more likely to be pliant to their demands than the ideologically consistent Machado. The daughter of a Marxist guerilla who rose to notoriety in the 1970s for capturing an American businessman, Rodríguez is adept at embracing contradiction in the name of political expediency. Despite her leftist credentials, for example, she has advocated for relatively conservative fiscal policy in the years since Venezuela’s 2013 economic collapse and is known for her strong relationships with the country’s elites. This psychological flexibility has been on display in recent days. On the one hand, she has described the U.S. intervention as a “brutality.” On the other, she has welcomed, verbally at least, the opportunity to work with the Trump government on an “agenda of cooperation.” When Trump threatens her with a fate worse than “her captured predecessor” if she doesn’t cooperate with him, her inconsistency is, perhaps, understandable.
Is any of this a victory for women on the global stage? It’s undeniably significant that two women, Rodríguez and Machado, are key players in Venezuela’s political landscape, even though neither can currently operate with autonomy. Is Rodríguez facing the ultimate glass cliff in only landing the top job at a time of unparalleled uncertainty? Or is she about to navigate this crisis to become one of the world’s most powerful leaders? Only time will tell.
Ellie Austin
Editorial Director, Most Powerful Women
ellie.austin@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
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PARTING WORDS
“I sing. I just keep singing. There are no exercises. The show is the exercise.”
—Actor Marilyn Maye, one of three women in their 90s performing on New York stages this season
