Venezuela Politics Explained, Who Holds Power in 2026

Venezuela politics in 2026 is a government without an election. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice-president, runs the country under a court order.

Washington licenses its oil trade and sponsors talks with part of the opposition.

For US readers this matters directly. The people named below decide who signs oil contracts, who leaves prison and when Venezuelans may vote again.

This guide sets out who holds which lever as of October 2026.

On Saturday 3 January 2026, US forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas. The same day, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (TSJ) ordered Rodríguez, then executive vice-president, to take over.

The ruling told her to “assume and exercise, as acting president, all the powers, duties and faculties” of the presidency. The court did not declare Maduro’s “absolute absence”, which under the constitution would trigger a new election within 30 days.

Instead it described a “forced absence”, a category the constitution does not name. Article 234 limits a temporary stand-in to 90 days, extendable once by 90 more.

The legal monitor Acceso a la Justicia argues that 180 days is the maximum. On that count, her mandate expired in early July.

By early August, government communications had quietly dropped the “(E)” for encargada, or acting, from her title, Infobae reported. The ruling camp now presents her simply as president.

Washington and the opposition still call her government interim.

Maduro and Flores are in custody in New York. On Thursday 8 October 2026, prosecutors added a charge of conspiracy to commit torture.

Delcy Rodríguez, born in 1969, is a lawyer and long-time member of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). She was serving as Maduro’s executive vice-president when he was captured.

In January, the regional daily Diario de Los Andes reported that her move up left the vice-presidency vacant. As president she has reshaped the cabinet.

The biggest change came on Wednesday 18 March 2026, when she replaced the defence minister of more than a decade. The ministers who matter most to foreigners, as of October 2026, are these:

Rodríguez met President Donald Trump in New York in September. On Wednesday 2 September she said presidential elections would come when Venezuela is “prepared”.

At the United Nations later that month she again promised elections but set no date.

The PSUV, founded by Hugo Chávez, is the core of the ruling Great Patriotic Pole alliance. It stands for the Bolivarian socialist model of state control over oil and a large welfare network.

The single-chamber National Assembly has 285 seats, up from 277, after an election on Sunday 25 May 2025. The extra eight seats were assigned to Guayana Esequiba, the territory Venezuela claims from Guyana.

The new assembly was installed on Monday 5 January 2026. Jorge Rodríguez, the president’s brother, was re-elected its president.

Pedro Infante became first vice-president and Grecia Colmenares second vice-president.

A small group of opposition figures took their seats. They include the former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, Stalin González, Henry Falcón, Antonio Ecarri and Pablo Pérez.

Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the ousted leader’s son, was also sworn in as a deputy.

The assembly has been the regime’s main tool for legal change in 2026. On Thursday 19 February it unanimously passed the Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence, which Rodríguez then signed.

The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) remain the pillar of the state. Generals hold cabinet posts, including agriculture.

The FANB publicly backed both the amnesty law and the oil accord with Washington.

González López’s appointment put an intelligence specialist in charge of the armed forces. At his appointment, the state broadcaster teleSUR said he would also oversee the Presidential Honour Guard and military counter-intelligence, DGCIM.

His predecessor, Padrino López, had held the defence post since 24 October 2014. teleSUR calls it the longest continuous tenure in the republic’s history. When the US and Venezuela signed their oil accord in September, González López said it was “not a subordination”.

Cabello’s interior ministry runs the national police. He has called complaints that María Corina Machado is being kept out a “show”.

The Supreme Court (TSJ) is led by Caryslia Rodríguez. Infobae describes the court as controlled by the ruling camp.

A reform in May 2026 changed the law to increase the number of judges.

The prosecutor’s office changed hands in 2026. Tarek William Saab, attorney general under Maduro, resigned on Wednesday 25 February.

On Thursday 9 April the assembly appointed Larry Devoe as attorney general and Eglée González as ombudswoman.

Devoe has sought a softer image. In September he ordered official accounts to remove posts showing unconvicted detainees.

He also met a Human Rights Watch delegation. The legal NGO Acceso a la Justicia criticised a lack of transparency in both appointments.

The past still weighs on the courts. On Tuesday 6 October, the former justice Bárbara César Siero said she was coerced into signing rulings that barred Machado from office.

She said three relatives were detained to pressure her. Her account has not been tested in court.

Renewal of the National Electoral Council (CNE) has not yet been agreed.

The opposition is split between two tracks. One is led by María Corina Machado of Vente Venezuela, a liberal, pro-market party.

She won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and remains outside the country as of October 2026.

Edmundo González Urrutia, the retired diplomat who ran for Machado’s coalition in 2024, also speaks from abroad. On Thursday 8 October he said the new US charges against Maduro put Venezuela’s human rights abuses “in the foreground”.