Don't be fooled by Yo soy Betty la fea's high school look. Delcy Elwina Rodríguez Gómez is Vice President and Minister of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The woman with the most power in the dictatorship, with the partial exception of Celia Flores, the blessed wife of Nicolas Maduro, who was prosecutor, deputy and president of the National Assembly, but above all, a friend and advisor to the fat tyrant. . Because, in fact, Delcy, despite being an ardent Chavista, owes her political – and only political – prosperity to President Maduro. Chávez loved his brother, who became information minister and today presides over the highly decorated National Assembly. To the Eternal Leader, Delcy made him whine a little: “Good fighter, good revolutionary, but very prickly.”
An act of revenge
The Rodriguez brothers are the sons of Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, who headed a breakaway from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). While the revolutionary movement debated whether to accept the constitution and practice politics in institutions, Rodríguez continued to believe in Cuba as an example and founded the Socialist League. A few months later, he was arrested on charges of participating in the kidnapping of an American businessman, and the police beat him for three days. He died as a result of medical complications caused by his injuries. The brothers vowed revenge and built socialism, or perhaps it was the opposite. The revolution is an act of revenge and compensation for the father. They were good students and received scholarships: he studied medicine and she studied law. Delsey brilliantly completed her postgraduate studies at the University of London and is fluent in English and French. From the first hour – inspired by their family history with the martyrs of the left – they were with Chávez.
Delcy first appeared as director of the Presidential Secretariat, until Chavez exiled her to the Ministry of Information. Indeed: the two brothers passed through the same ministerial portfolio, and both were also presidents of the National Assembly. They are familiar, startling coincidences that tend to happen often in airy, Creole dictatorships. We should remember that what is most amusing is that Maduro and his wife have, at different times, presided over the Venezuelan parliament. In fact, some observers claim that post-Chavismo is a bed with four legs: Maduro, Celia Flores and the Rodriguez brothers. The metaphor is acceptable if two bedside tables are added: Vladimir Padrino and Diosdado Cabello. Weapons are hidden in the first and cocaine in the second.
How did Delcy Rodriguez land at Barajas Airport in January 2020 if she couldn't do so legally? What was he doing with these forty very heavy bags? Why did José Luis Ábalos – Minister of Transport and Secretary of the Organization of the Socialist Workers Party – go to receive her and then deny that he had received her and then admit that he spoke to her for ten minutes about nothing? Who ordered the deletion of tapes with recordings of video cameras installed on the tracks and at the entrances to the VIP rooms? What does Rodriguez Zapatero think of all this, since his room is always located in Miraflores and the Tamanaku Hotel, and he is the one who most legitimizes the mafia that is destroying Venezuela? Maybe Albalos will explain something when he appears before the Senate Open Inquiry Committee. But this is very unlikely. This is not an internal PSOE issue, but affects the drug dictatorship that has killed hundreds of Venezuelans – and tortured thousands – throughout this century. And Abalos knows it all too well. Like Rodriguez Zapatero. Like Pedro Sanchez himself.
Total impunity
Delcy Rodriguez is as untouchable in Madrid as he is in Caracas. That he wears shoes worth a thousand euros, or that he loves five-fork restaurants, or that his brother has three children studying in European private schools, are all indicators of his complete impunity. But they are not the most dangerous. For the rest of his life, Abalos – not to mention Koldo Garcia – would remember nothing about that crazy night. His memory is as clear as the video cameras that were tampered with that very night.
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