Venezuelan Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello threatened Venezuelans in a video posted to the Chinese outlet TikTok on Monday night, warning them, “to doubt is to betray.”
Cabello issued the recorded threats amid the uncertainty in Venezuela in the aftermath of the January 3 U.S. law enforcement action in Caracas that resulted in the capture of deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
For years, Cabello, who comes from a military background, has been widely described as one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, strongman in the Venezuelan socialist regime, having occupied several high-ranking positions in both the executive and legislative branches of government during the rule of Hugo Chávez an Nicolás Maduro.
Cabello was one of the military officials that joined Chávez’s failed February 1992 military coup attempt in Venezuela and briefly served as acting president of Venezuela for about a day during the April 2022 failed coup attempt against Chávez. He also boasts the “official” position of “Sectoral vice president for Policy, Citizen Security, and Peace.”
The interior minister is also the host of Con el Mazo Dando (“Hitting with the Mallet”), a socialist propaganda show aired across Venezuelan state media — and on YouTube up until his channel was suspended in 2024. At press time, Cabello is yet to host a new episode of El Mazo in 2026.
Cabello appeared through the streets of Caracas on Monday night alongside law enforcement officials. Con el Mazo Dando‘s website, which doubles as Cabello’s own mini-outlet, reported that Cabello toured several areas of Caracas to “supervise the deployment of security forces and confirm the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the city.”
The two videos published by Cabello on his official TikTok account, according to the website, were recorded at the Caricuao parish in southwest Caracas and at O’Leary Square in the city’s downtown.
In both videos, Cabello and the officers are seen yelling “Always loyal, never traitors,” a chant that the socialist regime adopted in recent years.
“To doubt is to betray,” Cabello and the officials repeated twice.
@diosdadopsuv Desde la Plaza O’leary con los cuerpos de seguridad #venezuela #calma
@diosdadopsuv Desde Caricuao #venezuela en total normalidad
Cabello was one of the first regime officials to make a public appearance in the early hours of Saturday morning after the U.S. operation to capture Maduro. At the time, he reportedly claimed that he was on patrol through the streets of Caracas to “guarantee peace and tranquility for Venezuelans.”
“Let no one fall into despair, and let no one make things easier for the invader. Here is a people who know what they must do. We hope that the world will speak out against this attack, or else they will make public their complicity in the invader’s attack. Bombs falling on buildings inhabited by civilians—will international organizations be complicit?” he said on Saturday.
Diosdado Cabello is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges and has an active $25 million bounty for information that leads to his arrest and/or conviction.
Presently, Venezuela remains in a tense calm following Maduro’s capture. Unlike the Venezuelan diaspora, which has been widely celebrating the dictator’s downfall all over the world, local Venezuelans are exercising extreme caution so as to not fall victim to the socialist regime’s repressive apparatus. Local residents of Venezuela that spoke to Breitbart News on Monday on condition of anonymity explained that they would carry out their regular workday as if nothing had happened over the weekend.
The Venezuelan regime issued an emergency decree imposing a “State of Emergency” throughout Venezuela on the grounds of “guaranteeing internal order, national defense, and the protection of the population in the event of an extraordinary external situation.” The decree, dated January 3, was allegedly “signed” by Maduro. At press time, the Venezuelan socialist regime has not publicly disclosed how was Maduro able to “sign” the decree on January 3 when he was captured by U.S. forces in the early morning hours of that day.
On Monday night, the official account of the Mérida state police announced through Instagram that two unidentified men, aged 64 and 65, were arrested in the municipality of Guaraque for celebrating the “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro.
According to the local police, a complaint was filed against the two individuals after they shouted slogans against the regime “celebrating the kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and insulting members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
The police concluded with two slogans that read, “Serve with Honor,” and “To Doubt is to betray,” the same slogan chanted by Cabello on Monday night.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.