Trump administration tells Miami prosecutors to stand down on Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez

According to an Associated Press exclusive published May 27 and updated May 28, 2026, the Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez. Current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that "everybody has been told to stand down." DEA records obtained by the AP show Rodríguez had consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement since at least 2018, with allegations ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, and that her name appeared in nearly a dozen DEA investigations — several still ongoing this year. She has never been criminally charged in the United States. A Justice Department spokesperson said "there was never an investigation into her to shut down," a flat denial that conflicts with the multi-source law-enforcement reporting and the DEA's own documented file.

Officials said the directive to pause scrutiny of Rodríguez was meant to avoid disrupting the administration's effort to stabilize Venezuela after the U.S. military's removal of Nicolás Maduro and to open the oil-rich country to American investment. President Trump publicly praised Rodríguez as a "terrific person," and the U.S. has lifted sanctions against her and recognized her as Venezuela's sole head of state. The AP reported the same pattern extending to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom the DEA had designated a "priority target" over alleged ties to drug traffickers; U.S. officials recently assured the Colombian government that Petro does not face charges. Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor, called it "deeply troubling" for law enforcement to be told to "stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons."

What is recorded here is the inverse of the politicized-investigations pattern documented elsewhere in this archive: rather than opening or steering cases against political opponents, the administration is reported to be halting or pausing long-running narcotics investigations against foreign officials it currently finds diplomatically useful. The common abuse is the substitution of executive political preference for the apolitical operation of federal law enforcement — declining to pursue duly authorized investigations for political and transactional reasons, directed at the prosecutorial level from the top of the executive branch. The Justice Department's categorical denial that any investigation existed remains unresolved against the AP's sourcing and the DEA records; should DOJ or DEA documents later clarify the factual dispute, this entry may warrant review.