Venezuelan Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello on Wednesday dared “anyone” to find evidence of his alleged conversations with the United States before the capture of Nicolás Maduro as reported by Reuters.
Cabello, widely considered to be the most powerful figure in the socialist regime and the man who controls its brutally repressive apparatus, claimed that he is “priceless.” Cabello is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges and stands as one of the co-conspirators who benefited from Nicolás Maduro’s drug trafficking schemes in a recently unsealed indictment. The United States has an active $25 million bounty in place for information that can lead to his arrest and/or conviction.
Last week, Reuters reported that, according to “multiple people familiar with the matter,” Cabello had been engaged in talks with officials from the Trump administration. The alleged communications with Cabello, Reuters wrote, took place months before the January 3, 2026, U.S. law enforcement operation that saw U.S. Delta Force members capture and extract Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas.
The Venezuelan socialist regime rejected the report’s claims in a January 18 social media post from “Miraflores Right Now,” a recently-launched social media account that appears to emulate the White House’s Rapid Response 47 social media presence.
Cabello first publicly referred to the Reuters report on the Wednesday evening broadcast of Con el Mazo Dando (“Hitting with the Mallet”), his weekly socialist propaganda show that, for years, has seen him insult and ridicule critics of the regime, levy countless spurious accusations against dissidents, and “leak” false assertions under the pretext that the dubious information allegedly came from anonymous “cooperating patriots” around the world. Some of the “letters from cooperating patriots” feature romantic pet names for Cabello — such as one such “letter” he read on Wednesday, where the purported anonymous source affectionately refers to Cabello as “my mango compote.”
Cabello condemned the contents of the report and denied having engaged in talks with U.S. officials, claiming that the claims contained in the report are part of a purported “media campaign that seeks to create divisions within the revolutionary bloc.” Cabello also pointed to a social media post by exiled Venezuelan journalist Leopoldo Castillo who, referring to the Reuters report, wrote, “Diosdado Cabello was the Judas who betrayed Maduro.” Castillo’s post appears to have upset Cabello.
“I challenge anyone, Reuters, Leopoldo Castillo, to show even a shred of evidence that I met with anyone. I do not have a price. Yours is on sale, you are expensive even when given away for free,” he said.
“There is a big difference between you and us (…) We can talk to anyone, we have nothing to hide, but you do,” he continued, accusing the Venezuelan right wing of having lived “amid accusations of being snitches, of complicity, theft, corruption, and murder, but not us.”
Cabello is presently in control of the socialist regime’s repressive forces, including command of the DGCIM and SEBIN, two brutally repressive intelligence agencies at the service of the ruling rogue socialists, and the colectivos, socialist paramilitary gangs. In the immediate days following Maduro’s capture, Cabello “patrolled” the streets of Caracas in search for individuals celebrating Maduro’s downfall and emphasized that the regime has the “monopoly on weapons” in Venezuela.
Days before Reuters published its report, “acting president” of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez met with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Ratcliffe in Caracas. Ratcliffe reportedly said that he traveled to Venezuela at the direction of President Donald Trump “to deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship.”
Over the past weeks, President Trump has told reporters that Rodríguez is cooperating with the United States and is in close talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. President Trump spoke with Rodríguez over the phone, and described the conversation as “very good.” Rodríguez, for her part, said that the call was “long and cordial” and conducted in a “spirit of mutual respect.”
At home, however, Rodríguez and the rest of the regime’s top brass maintain the assertion that they stand “united” and that she is “in charge” of Venezuela and not the United States. Cabello repeated the claim that the socialist regime is “united” during his Wednesday show.
“They are running their media campaigns based on lies. There is no betrayal or fighting here. The Bolivarian revolution continues to govern. We are the guarantee of peace in this country. With Delcy Rodríguez at the helm, Venezuela continues on a path of diplomacy and peace,” Cabello reportedly said.
In a January 15 address to the National Assembly, Rodríguez claimed, “If I have to go to Washington, I’ll go standing up, not crawling.” The Spanish news agency EFE reported on Wednesday that, according to a “White House official,” Rodríguez plans to visit Washington.
Wednesday’s broadcast was the third since the January 3 operation to capture Maduro and like the previous two broadcasts, did not feature a live audience. The broadcast, however, saw Cabello once again use his infamous cartelera, (“bulletin board”), on which he presents and judges printed cutouts of news headlines and social media posts pinned to a cork board, scribbling over content critical of the regime and deriding its authors while doodling approval checkmarks on pro-regime contents.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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