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The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury removed Delcy Eloina Rodríguez Gómez from its List of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) this Wednesday, according to the official statement published on the agency's website.
The removal applies to both entries registered on the list: her full name, RODRIGUEZ GOMEZ, Delcy Eloina, and her alias, RODRIGUEZ, Delcy, identified by her date of birth May 18, 1969, and Venezuelan ID number 10353667.
OFAC did not make any other administrative changes to the SDN list on the same date, making Rodríguez's removal the only action of the day.
Rodríguez had been initially sanctioned by OFAC on September 25, 2018, while serving as executive vice president of Venezuela, as part of a coordinated action against the inner circle of Nicolás Maduro, which also included First Lady Cilia Flores, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, and Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez.
For nearly eight years, the sanctions blocked all her assets and interests in the United States or under the control of U.S. persons, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had tagged her as a priority target since 2022 for drug trafficking investigations and gold smuggling.
The lifting of sanctions is the most formal and concrete step in the normalization process between Washington and the new Venezuelan government, which began after Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026.
After that event, the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela ordered Rodríguez to assume the interim presidency invoking Article 335 of the Constitution, and she was formally sworn in before the National Assembly on January 5, 2026.
Since then, Rodríguez has maintained an intense diplomatic agenda with Washington: he had a direct telephone conversation with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on January 30, reporting "significant progress."
On March 4, Trump publicly praised on Truth Social for doing a great job and facilitating the flow of Venezuelan oil, while the Secretaries of Energy, Chris Wright, and the Interior, Doug Burgum, were visiting Caracas to promote energy and mining agreements.
On March 12, the Trump administration formally notified the U.S. justice system that it recognizes Rodríguez as the sole head of state, capable of acting on behalf of Venezuela.
On March 26, Rodríguez participated in an investors' forum held in Miami, where she promised legal certainty for foreign capital.
However, the bilateral relationship is not without its complexities: in March 2026, it was revealed that the United States was preparing a sealed criminal indictment against Rodríguez for corruption and money laundering, reflecting the tensions that persist in the relationship between Washington and Caracas despite the accelerated diplomatic normalization.
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