McCormick Weighs In on Who Could Replace Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in The Telegraph

December 9, 2025

The Telegraph

Gladys McCormick

History Department

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict & Collaboration

Program on Latin America & the Caribbean

Government

Latin America & the Caribbean

The Telegraph

Gladys McCormick

President Trump is pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to leave power through various means including a $50 million bounty, military presence and designation as a terrorist leader, though experts believe Maduro is unlikely to step down.

Should Maduro depart, multiple figures could potentially fill the power vacuum, including opposition leader María Corina Machado as the democratic choice and regime insider Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

“She [Vice President Delcy Rodriguez] strikes me as somebody who has known how to accommodate to Maduro, which is part of the reason why she’s there, but she doesn’t sort of strike me as somebody who would sort of step into that political vacuum and take control,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

Read more in The Telegraph article, “Who could replace Nicolás Maduro?”