Venezuela’s turn to Israel is about survival, not conviction

Published 10 July 2026 · us

Six months after United States forces ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the balance of power in Latin America and the Caribbean has shifted in Washington’s

Six months after United States forces ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the balance of power in Latin America and the Caribbean has shifted in Washington’s favour. In Maduro’s place stands Delcy Rodriguez, his former vice president, now acting president and a far more manageable partner for Washington. Her rise has given the administration of US President Donald Trump a de facto ally in its effort to revive US dominance over the Western Hemisphere under what has become known as the “Donroe Doctrine”. Rodriguez’s challenge is to satisfy Washington without losing control at home. To do so, her advisers are recasting a movement once rooted in the socialist politics of the Hugo Chavez-Nicolas Maduro era as something more pragmatic, transactional and suited to the new hemispheric order. The former “comrades” are now moving closer than ever to open alignment with Trumpism in Latin America. Nowhere is the scale of Rodriguez’s shift clearer than in her approach to Israel. Under her government, Caracas has begun moving towards a state long treated as an enemy by the “21st-century socialists” who have ruled Venezuela for the past 27 years. From hostility to rapprochement Throughout the Chavez-Maduro era, successive Venezuelan governments considered Israel a “genocidal” state and an “enemy of peace”, condemned almost every Israeli military action in the Middle East, and denounced its very existence. Chavez broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 and deepened cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel’s principal regional rival, as well as with its regional non-state allies.

Rodriguez, however, has chosen to pursue her own agenda with Israel. Despite initially saying the US military intervention that removed Maduro had “Zionist overtones”, the acting president has since been paving the way to re-establish relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. In late February, her government took the surprising step of avoiding any direct condemnation of Washington or Tel Aviv over the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Instead, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling for “dialogue” and criticising Iran’s retaliation against countries in the region hosting US military assets. The statement distanced Caracas from Tehran and signalled that Rodriguez’s government would not automatically support Iran in its confrontation with the United States and its regional allies. In April, the interim president made a direct overture to Venezuela’s Jewish community, a gesture clearly intended to signal her openness to rapprochement with Israel. She sent the Venezuelan Jewish community and Venezuelan Chief Rabbi Isaac Cohen a warm Passover greeting on social media, praising the Jewish people and advocating for peace and intercultural and interreligious respect. A few days later, she addressed Rabbi Cohen and Jewish Venezuelans again in a televised speech, reassuring them that Venezuela held “no anti-Semitic positions”. The devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June gave the Rodriguez administration another opportunity to advance its rapprochement with Israel. After 17 years without diplomatic relations, Venezuela publicly thanked Israel for sending a disaster-response team. The interim president also personally praised the Israeli delegation’s expertise in search and rescue and infrastructure assessment.