Caracas tests opening to Israel after years of hostility
Carlos Eduardo Pina says Delcy Rodriguez is courting Israel and Washington to shore up Venezuela’s interim government after Maduro’s removal.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Venezuela’s interim government is edging toward Israel after years of hostility, a shift that Venezuelan political scientist Carlos Eduardo Pina says is tied to President Delcy Rodriguez’s effort to hold power. Writing for Al Jazeera, Pina argues the move reflects political survival more than a change in ideology.
Pina said the turn comes six months after United States forces removed Nicolas Maduro from office and left Rodriguez, his former vice president, as acting president. He described her as a more workable partner for US President Donald Trump’s administration as Washington seeks to reassert influence in Latin America and the Caribbean under what he called the “Donroe Doctrine.”
Rodriguez’s central challenge, Pina wrote, is to satisfy Washington while keeping domestic control. Her advisers, he said, are recasting a movement built around the socialist politics of Hugo Chavez and Maduro into a more transactional project suited to the current regional order.
Break with the Chavez-Maduro line
Relations with Israel have been a clear marker of that shift, according to Pina. During the Chavez and Maduro years, Venezuelan governments denounced Israel, condemned Israeli military action in the Middle East and aligned more closely with Iran, Israel’s main regional rival.
Chavez cut diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009, Pina noted. Rodriguez initially said the US military intervention that removed Maduro had “Zionist overtones,” but Pina said her administration has since worked toward restoring ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
In February, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not directly condemn Washington or Tel Aviv after US-Israeli strikes on Iran, according to Pina. Instead, he said, the ministry called for dialogue and criticized Iran’s retaliation against regional countries hosting US military assets, signaling distance from Tehran.
Rodriguez also reached out to Venezuela’s Jewish community in April, Pina wrote. He cited her Passover message to Venezuelan Jews and Chief Rabbi Isaac Cohen, as well as a later televised address in which she said Venezuela held “no anti-Semitic positions.”
Earthquake aid opens contact
June’s twin earthquakes gave Caracas another opening, according to Pina. Al Jazeera’s photo caption, citing AFP, described Rodriguez visiting a French Civil Security camp in La Guaira on July 1 after the June 24 quakes.
Pina said Venezuela publicly thanked Israel for sending a disaster-response team after 17 years without diplomatic relations. He wrote that Rodriguez praised the Israeli delegation’s work on search and rescue and infrastructure assessment, producing the first known high-level contact between Israeli and Venezuelan officials in years.
The broader strategy, Pina argued, includes aligning with US priorities, reaching out to Trump-aligned regional leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, accepting US demands to open Venezuela’s oil, mining and electricity sectors, and allowing US military forces to help with earthquake relief.
Pina also linked the Israel opening to Caracas’s effort to distance itself from Iran and Hezbollah. He said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned after Maduro’s ouster about ties between Maduro’s government and Hezbollah, and that Rodriguez’s administration then moved to extradite Ali Zaki Hage Jalil to Panama and Alex Saab to the United States. Pina wrote that Panama has accused Hage Jalil of “terrorism,” while Saab faces US money laundering and other charges.
Domestic politics are also at stake, Pina said. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has cultivated ties with Israel, especially Netanyahu, and Pina argued Rodriguez may be trying to weaken that support by courting Israel and parts of Venezuela’s Jewish community.
Pina concluded that the opening to Israel is a calculated effort to consolidate power, weaken a rival and reassure Washington. He said it remains uncertain whether such a bargain can overcome nearly three decades of anti-Israel rhetoric from Venezuela’s ruling movement.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.