Related videos:
A single image was enough to ignite speculation in Caracas and Washington.
The former U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Marshall S. Billingslea, posted on his X account this Sunday a photograph of Diosdado Cabello, a key member of Chavismo and the current Minister of the Interior, superimposed over a playing card: the ace of spades.
No words accompanied the message. But in the diplomatic and intelligence community, the gesture was interpreted as a direct warning: Cabello is in Washington's sights.
The symbolism is clear. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Pentagon distributed a deck of cards featuring the faces of the main leaders of Saddam Hussein's regime, with the ace of spades reserved for the dictator himself.
Those "capture orders" became an icon of the U.S. strategy to identify priority targets.
The tweet from Billingslea, former architect of the financial sanctions against chavista officials, appears just days after Reuters revealed that the Trump administration had warned Cabello that he could "face the same fate as Maduro" if he does not cooperate with interim president Delcy Rodríguez in the aftermath of the capture of the Venezuelan dictator.
In Venezuelan political circles, Cabello's low profile since the U.S. attack has been interpreted as a sign of internal tension within the ruling party.
Intelligence sources cited by international media describe him as an "unpredictable factor," with power over military and security sectors, and a potential obstacle to the roadmap that Washington is attempting to impose in Caracas.
The ace of spades, in military jargon, represents the most dangerous enemy but also the most coveted. If Billingslea's message aims to send a warning, it is unmistakable: for the United States, Cabello remains the key piece on the Venezuelan board.
Filed under: