Trump administration tells Miami prosecutors to avoid Venezuela probe

The Trump administration quietly told federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president, a move that puts foreign policy and law enforcement on a collision course. The instruction signals a possible diplomatic reset with Caracas just as Rodríguez, long a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration target, was being kept at arm’s length by prosecutors in a district that has long handled Venezuela cases.

Rodríguez had been on the DEA’s radar for years and was labeled a “priority target” in 2022, a designation reserved for suspects believed to have a major impact on the drug trade. Records cited in the reporting showed she had been under DEA attention since at least 2018. The new guidance, delivered Wednesday, pointed federal prosecutors in Miami away from a figure who had remained in U.S. law-enforcement sights even as the White House explored warmer ties with Venezuela.

Miami has been a central venue for Venezuela-related cases because of the city’s large exile community and its role in regional drug-trafficking investigations. That makes the instruction especially significant: it was aimed not at a symbolic outpost, but at one of the key U.S. jurisdictions used to pressure Caracas through criminal probes. A decision to ease off there would be read in Venezuela as a change in Washington’s leverage, not just a narrow prosecutorial call.

The Justice Department added another wrinkle. A spokesperson told the Associated Press that “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” That framing matters because it suggests the administration was not canceling a filed case, but steering prosecutors away from opening or expanding one. In practical terms, the move reads less like a courtroom reversal than a political de-escalation.

However it is described, the precedent is stark. If the White House is signaling which foreign officials prosecutors should avoid, it risks blurring the line between independent enforcement and diplomacy. For Venezuela, that could mean softer U.S. pressure at a moment when Washington is recalibrating its posture toward Maduro’s government and weighing energy, migration and security concerns alongside narcotics enforcement.