Jorge Rodríguez, the ‘cold psychiatrist’ waiting to succeed Nicolás Maduro

Jorge Rodríguez and Nicolás Maduro at the Miraflores Palace on June 27, 2019.

Nicolás Maduro and his allies anxiously counted the votes; and they were not enough to defeat the opponent, Henrique Capriles. In April 2013, the candidate anointed by Hugo Chávez lost the presidency of Venezuela a month after burying the commander-in-chief. The Bolivarian revolution was in check, but its chips refused to fall. A defenestrated former minister, describing this version of events and hiding his name out of fear of reprisals from his former comrades, says that several of them suggested ignoring the defeat and clinging to power.

But such a coup was not necessary. Later that night the National Electoral Council (CNE) said that Maduro had reversed the result and that in the end he had won the presidency with a 1.5% advantage. After that dubious victory, the heir to Chavismo teamed up with psychiatrist Jorge Rodríguez, a political operator who had now thrown his hand in with the official party, and who joined Chavismo in 2003 as a senior official of that same National Electoral Council.

On July 28, Hugo Chávez’s birthday, a new election will challenge Chavismo, which today is led by a troika: Maduro remains in charge; Jorge Rodríguez presides over the National Assembly; and Delcy Rodríguez, his sister and political partner, is executive vice-president. The events of 2013 could be repeated, but the current scenario is more adverse, as Madurismo has fewer votes, the governments of many countries are now questioning its legitimacy, an international team of judges is investigating the ruling party and the opposition, led by María Corina Machado, is gathering strong popular support.

Faced with a transition that he does not want, the Venezuelan president entrusted Rodríguez with the negotiation that could lead to a change of government. But his objective, say those who face him, is not to build bridges, but to destroy them to stop any adversaries. If Maduro is to be forced out, his squire has allowed only his own name to appear on the list of possible successors.

‘Golden boy’

Rodríguez’s ambition was born from the murder of his father Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a politician and guerrilla who kidnapped William Niehous, vice president of the Owens-Illinois glass company and alleged CIA liaison, in 1976. Jorge Antonio coordinated the kidnapping, but was later arrested as the person responsible and died as a result of torture while in the custody of the state.

“His widow Delcy Gómez was scarred by that crime. She instilled in her children the need to be the best, to vanquish those in power and avenge their father’s death,” recalls an old friend who was educated with the Rodríguez siblings in a public school in Caracas and is linked to the Central University of Venezuela. Subversive families — active or former guerrillas — lived there along with other conspirators, such as the Communist Party and the Socialist League, a movement founded by Rodríguez Sr.

The Socialist League was a tiny party that advocated armed struggle between the 1970s and 1980s, until it demobilized and participated in the 1988 presidential elections. It obtained 0.8% of the vote. Another graduate from the revolutionary high school says that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, founded by Chávez and coordinated by Jorge Rodríguez in its early days, imitates the Socialist League: “A micro-party that dared to speak on behalf of the people.”

The Rodríguez family grew up in an ideological home where they read Marx and sang the songs of Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés. Jorgito, as they called him, grew up protected by his father’s allies and seen as the golden boy. He was cultured, intelligent, and charismatic. A fellow student sums it up: “[He was] the outstanding pioneer of the radical left, whose pain was exploited and he was made to speak at Socialist League events.”

Two men, one destiny

Jorge Antonio Rodríguez Sr. died young, but he left his son an organization that he used as a springboard. Through it he met Nicolás Maduro. They both grew up in El Valle, a working-class neighborhood in the southwest of Caracas, but in different environments. Rodríguez’s milieu was aspirational, well-dressed, and perfumed. His girlfriends were upper class, and he cut his teeth in university politics and ended up as a specialist doctor. As a recent graduate, he practiced his profession and dedicated several years to making money. Maduro, however, barely graduated high school and came to politics via the unions.

So far without success, Rodríguez has longed for Miraflores, the seat of government. Maduro did not achieve the presidency by following a predetermined path. Instead, he got there because of his loyalty to the leader. Nevertheless, he and Rodríguez sealed an alliance in 2012, when Maduro attended the annual ceremony that the Rodríguez family holds at their patriarch’s grave.

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Justice, controlled by Chavismo, appointed the then 38-year-old psychiatrist to the board of the National Electoral Council. An official there remembers his relationship with the press: “He had strategies and techniques from his profession. He learned the names of the journalists and created close relationships to evade or confront, according to his objectives.” In an act that assured him of the electoral employees’ gratitude — thousands of people throughout the country — the board member paid off an old debt that that institution serviced through the payroll.

Jorge Rodríguez only worked at the CNE for two years, but it was enough for him to preside over the organization and the National Electoral Board before that. This is the organization that really controls each election. A reporter remembers that under Rodríguez the institution was technical, and not overtly political as it is now. The psychiatrist also seemed different. He was a rational spokesperson who spoke frequently in the media.

With regard to his management of the institution, the journalist cites a report from the Organization of American States and the Carter Center: “Both spoke well, in general terms, about the elections that were held in that period.” The former electoral official agrees: “Due to the popularity that Chavismo had, they could be institutional and abide by the law. There were infractions, but Rodríguez’s management was respectful of the popular will.” If someone who does not act in a timely manner can be considered respectful.

This refers to the political situation in 2003. After half a term had passed, the Constitution stipulated a referendum be held to recall the president. But Rodríguez’s CNE delayed it while Chávez distributed the million-dollar subsidies that facilitated his victory. That lifesaver opened his path into the revolution, and since then he has held almost every government position imaginable: mayor of Caracas, minister, deputy, vice-president… but his resume is still missing the elusive presidential cherry on the top.

The ousted former minister remembers how his old friend entered the government. “Chávez believed in pedigree, and he is the son of Jorge Rodríguez. When he arrived we worked on some reports for the president: situational analysis, political strategies, speeches, inputs for the program that Chávez did on Sundays. Jorge was a counselor.” And among his tasks was one that he continues to perform today: identifying the opposition’s mistakes and devising ways to take advantage of them.

The power behind the throne

Ten people gave testimonies for this piece, but none dared to reveal their names publicly. The few who have spoken requested anonymity. One of them, a human rights activist, attributes the strategies to dismantle the opposition and civil society to Rodríguez. Many think that his adversaries should not have accepted him as a negotiator, but the psychiatrist led the official delegation in the Barbados talks, where the opposition and the government agreed on political guarantees for all parties and to ease the sanctions that the United States imposed against several Venezuelan officials, including the Rodríguez family.

His greatest success in these deals has been the release of Álex Saab, Maduro’s alleged frontman and supposed diplomat according to the official discourse. After three years in prison for money laundering, Saab was released through an exchange between the United States and Venezuela, in which 10 Americans were also released. When he received the ex-convict in Miraflores, Maduro shook the hand of Jorge Rodríguez, who was smiling by his side: “You did it. Congratulations.”

That’s why the squire is there, says an opposition politician who deals with him in negotiations. He helps his boss and shows his loyalty. “And he always divides the opposition,” he adds. This political opponent says that Rodríguez has the arrogance and vanity of an established power. As a precaution, he deletes his words in our chats straight after writing them. “He is a cold psychiatrist and a good actor: he can be cordial or aggressive depending on his needs. And he has a brain,” he comments.

The human rights activist cites initiatives born from that brain. One pushes the idea that Madurismo is a group of cornered democrats, who are what they are because of a violent opposition. Another discusses the possibility of opening two options in Venezuela: if the opposition pressures the regime, it will take the path of Nicaragua, but if they leave it alone, perhaps it will return to democracy.

As a negotiator, Rodríguez has tried to free his government from an investigation for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. In Bogotá, during a meeting called by President Gustavo Petro, the activist remembers that Rodríguez demanded that the trial be stopped. “He is the author of a narrative that denies human rights violations, and the leader of the strategies that hinder the work of international organizations here.”

One reading would say that these efforts are seeking to protect a regime in which the Rodríguez family are in the vanguard. “If there is a succession, they have a preferential turn,” says an intellectual and old friend. The exiled former minister describes today’s power in Caracas as something diffuse, that moves in currents without the centralized command that Chávez exercised. In this new scenario, the Speaker of the National Assembly may be working for himself as the man to oversee the transition. The former electoral official says that he is one of the few who can tell the truth to Maduro: “The only way to save Chavismo is for you not to be there.”

The former minister, the estranged friends, the former official, and the opponent agree: Jorge Rodríguez took his revenge a long time ago, but he did not know how to stop. In seeking vengeance, he joined a government that holds hundreds of political prisoners, persecutes its opponents, and has displaced millions of people fleeing a humanitarian emergency.

In 2018 Delcy Rodríguez, who has just presented a law against fascism, criticized by the opposition as a new instrument for persecution, summarized the crusade her party undertook half a century ago: “The Bolivarian revolution was our personal revenge.” From the position held by her brother, the vice-president spoke of democracy and cited Tomás Borge, the Nicaraguan guerrilla who wrote My personal revenge. In the poem, he promised the torturers that his retaliation would be love and kindness.

But the siblings did not follow suit, and their revenge has been bloody. Twenty years ago Jorge Rodríguez lived according to other codes: he talked about literature, recommended books, praised the writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique, whose novel La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña was his favorite. It is a story that is similar to his own, in which the protagonist fails in his attempt to become an exemplary revolutionary.

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