Republican Rep. Carlos Giménez renewed his public feud with Venezuela's acting head of state this week, using his social media platform to tell followers that Delcy Rodríguez has no business remaining in power.
A Monday Night Ultimatum
In a message posted the evening of Aug. 24 on X, Giménez wrote in Spanish that Rodríguez "es la dictadora interina" and that she "debe ser removida lo antes posible" — she is the interim dictator and should be removed as soon as possible — closing the post with the hashtag #SOSVenezuela. LaPatilla was first to report on the message in Spanish. Giménez, who represents Florida's 28th Congressional District covering southwest Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys, sits on the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. He offered no specific mechanism or timetable for forcing Rodríguez out, leaving the post as another salvo in a standoff that has simmered for months without a clear resolution in sight.
The congressman's language this week fits a pattern he has repeated since Rodríguez took charge in Caracas. Back in February, Giménez argued Chavismo had never been weaker in 67 years and pushed for what he called tough medicine to finish it off. Two months later, he pressed Rodríguez to hand over Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, telling Semana that "la rendición de cuentas no puede ser selectiva" — accountability cannot be selective. Then, as twin earthquakes killed thousands and left tens of thousands unaccounted for across north-central Venezuela in late June, Giménez told CNN, in remarks later carried by The Hill, that "she's the interim dictator, she's part of the old regime." He argued that Washington's disaster response — which grew to roughly $300 million in humanitarian assistance alongside American troops sent to help reopen Caracas's Maiquetía airport and secure relief logistics — should be paired with faster movement toward genuine elections rather than continued deference to Rodríguez's government.
From Vice President to Acting Head of State
Rodríguez, a longtime diplomat and lawyer who served for years as Nicolás Maduro's vice president, was directed by Venezuela's Supreme Court to assume presidential duties the day after a U.S. military raid captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3. She was sworn in days later, becoming the first woman to hold presidential powers in Venezuelan history, even as she and Maduro continued to insist publicly that he remained the country's rightful president.
Giménez's rhetoric stands apart from the far friendlier tone the White House has taken. President Trump has repeatedly praised Rodríguez's cooperation for getting Venezuelan oil flowing again, and his Treasury Department dropped her from its sanctions list that April. Sen. Rick Scott has echoed Giménez's harsher assessment, at one point calling Rodríguez "the head of a cartel." Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who wields significant influence among Venezuelan exiles despite holding no formal U.S. role, told a Heritage Foundation crowd that Rodríguez is a "communist" aligned with Russia, China and Iran rather than the Venezuelan people. Senate Democrats have pushed a related question from the other direction, asking whether Washington simply swapped one authoritarian for another; Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Foreign Relations Committee that officials now running Caracas are "individuals that in our system would not be acceptable in the long term," while describing the current arrangement as a stabilization phase rather than an endorsement.
Why South Florida Is Paying Close Attention
The dispute lands with particular force in Giménez's backyard. Nearly half of the roughly 1.1 million Venezuelan immigrants in the United States live in Florida, according to Pew Research Center, concentrated heavily in Doral, Weston and other Miami-Dade communities. The Trump administration has suggested Maduro's fall would eventually let Venezuelan exiles return home; Giménez and allied lawmakers counter that little changes for that population so long as a former Maduro loyalist runs the country in Caracas, however cooperative she has become with Washington. That framing resonates with constituents across South Florida who have watched Chavismo from a distance for years.
Caracas Offers a Concession of Its Own
Giménez's post landed the same week Rodríguez's government announced it would eliminate the police checkpoints, known locally as alcabalas, used across Venezuelan cities to search residents' phones and flag dissent — a practice Bloomberg reported has served as one of Chavismo's central surveillance tools for a decade. In a rare sit-down with TIME last month, Rodríguez insisted she was not surrendering Venezuelan sovereignty but rather opening the economy in the country's own interest, even as human rights monitors continue documenting detentions carried out under her watch.
Neither Rodríguez's office nor the State Department had responded publicly to Giménez's latest post as of this writing. No election timeline has been set for Venezuela, and Diosdado Cabello — the target of a $25 million U.S. bounty — remains in his post as interior minister, still working alongside the very administration that wants him extradited.
