No OFAC, No Problem: With Jorge Rodríguez Delisted, Washington Cements Venezuela Gamble

Venezuela's National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez smiles during the third round of political dialogue with the opposition at the Melia hotel in Caracas on October 14, 2026. (Credit: Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP via Getty Images)

The Briefing:

• The U.S. Treasury's OFAC removed Jorge Rodríguez — Venezuela's National Assembly president and brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez — from its Specially Designated Nationals list on October 14, 2026, six months after Delcy herself was cleared on April 1.
• Both siblings now govern the country that fell into transition when Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026. Together they control Venezuela's executive and legislative branches under an interim government that Washington has formally recognized.
• Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado — widely viewed as Venezuela's most prominent democratic voice — remains shut out of U.S.-backed transition talks, leaving the country's clearest democratic mandate at the margins of a deal being written without her.