CIA Director Meets Venezuela’s Interim Leader in Caracas

On Thursday, January 16 2026, CIA Director John Ratcliffe arrived in Caracas to meet Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, a visit ordered by President Donald Trump. The meeting, the highest‑level U.S. contact in Venezuela since the U.S. seized former President Nicolás Maduro earlier that month, focused on intelligence cooperation, economic stability and curbing drug trafficking. Rodríguez, who replaced Maduro after U.S. forces seized him and flew him to the United States for a drug‑charge trial, emphasized the need to stop Venezuela from becoming a safe‑haven for adversaries such as narco‑gang Tren de Aragua. The same day Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump at the White House. The U.S. raid that removed Maduro killed 47 Venezuelan soldiers, including nine women, and Cuba later received the remains of 32 soldiers killed in an earlier attack.