Top Venezuelan Officials Were Given 15 Minutes To Agree To Cooperate With The U.S. Or Be Killed, Leaked Recording Shows

A leaked recording of a closed-door meeting of Venezuelan officials and pro-government influencers reveals how the country's interim leadership has sought to project resistance domestically while signaling readiness to cooperate with Washington after the U.S. operation that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3.

In the audio, reported by The Guardian and Venezuelan news site Cazadores de Fake News, interim leader Delcy Rodríguez recounts that she and other senior officials were given 15 minutes to respond to U.S. demands during the operation:

"The threats began from the very first minute they kidnapped the president. They gave Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister], Jorge [Rodríguez, the acting president's brother and congressional president,] and me 15 minutes to respond, or they would kill us"

Rodríguez then says "the threats and the blackmail are constant" and that "we have to proceed with patience and strategic prudence, with very clear objectives, brothers and sisters" before listing three goals: "to preserve peace ... to rescue our hostages ... and to preserve political power".

The recording, which took place roughly a week after the operation, offers a rare view of internal deliberations within the Chavista leadership as it sought to maintain unity and control the narrative following Maduro's removal. Rodríguez urged cohesion, saying, "the only thing I would ask for is unity," while then-communications minister Freddy Ñáñez called for an end to "gossip, rumors, intrigues and attempts at discrediting" of her leadership.

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Rodríguez has not publicly repeated the claim that U.S. forces threatened to kill officials, and neither the Venezuelan nor U.S. governments commented on the leaked audio. This week, Washington confirmed that Rodríguez had been invited to visit the United States, though no date has been set. "We are in a process of dialogue, of working with the United States," Rodríguez said Wednesday.

A separate report from The Guardian, published on Thursday, indicates that cooperation with Washington had been contemplated before Maduro's capture as Rodríguez and her brother had privately signaled to U.S. intermediaries that they would work with Washington if Maduro were removed, though they did not assist in his overthrow. Communications between Rodríguez and U.S. officials reportedly began months earlier through Qatari intermediaries.

U.S. officials have described Rodríguez as a pragmatic interlocutor, and President Donald Trump has said the two governments are "getting along very well." Analysts say the leaked recording underscores a broader strategy by Venezuela's interim leadership: resisting accusations of capitulation at home while maintaining engagement with the United States to stabilize the post-Maduro political landscape.

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