Venezuela teeters as guerrilla groups, cartels exploit Maduro power vacuum

Venezuela is teetering on the edge after the U.S. capture and arrest of former President Nicolás Maduro, as armed militias, guerrilla groups and criminal networks threaten a path toward stability, according to reports. As interim President Delcy Rodríguez assumes control, backed by President Trump’s administration, analysts have warned that the country is completely saturated with heavily armed groups capable of derailing any progress toward stability. "All of the armed groups have the power to sabotage any type of transition just by the conditions of instability that they can create," Andrei Serbin Pont, a military analyst and head of the Buenos Aires-based think tank Cries, told The Financial Times . "There are parastate armed groups across the entirety of Venezuela’s territory," he said. MADURO ARREST SENDS 'CLEAR MESSAGE' TO DRUG CARTELS, ALLIES AND US RIVALS, RETIRED ADMIRAL SAYS Experts say Rodríguez must keep the regime’s two most powerful hardliners onside: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. "The focus is now on Diosdado Cabello," Venezuelan military strategist José García told Reuters , "because he is the most ideological, violent and unpredictable element of the Venezuelan regime." "Delcy has to walk a tightrope," said Phil Gunson, a Crisis Group analyst in Caracas. "They are not in a position to deliver any kind of deal with Trump unless they can get the approval of the people with the guns, who are basically Padrino and Cabello." Since Maduro’s removal, government-aligned militias known as "colectivos" have been deployed across Caracas and other cities to enforce order and suppress dissent. "The future is uncertain, the colectivos have weapons, the Colombian guerrilla is already here in Venezuela, so we don’t know what’s going to happen, time will tell," Oswaldo, a 69-year-old shop owner, told The Telegraph . WAS TRUMP’S MADURO OPERATION ILLEGAL? WHAT INTERNATIONAL LAW HAS TO SAY As previously reported by Fox News Digital, armed motorcyclists and masked enforcers have erected checkpoints in the capital, searching civilians’ phones and vehicles for signs of opposition to the U.S. raid. "That environment of instability plays into the hands of armed actors," Serbin Pont added. Outside the capital, guerrilla groups and organized crime syndicates are exploiting the power vacuum along Venezuela’s borders and in its resource-rich interior. Guerrillas now operate along Venezuela’s 2,219-kilometer border with Colombia and control illegal mining near the Orinoco oil belt. The National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian Marxist guerrilla group with thousands of fighters and designated a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, has operated in Venezuela as a paramilitary force. FROM SANCTIONS TO SEIZURE: WHAT MADURO'S CAPTURE MEANS FOR Venezuela’S ECONOMY Elizabeth Dickson, Crisis Group’s deputy director for Latin America, said the ELN "in Venezuela … has essentially operated as a paramilitary force, aligned with the interests of the Maduro government up until now." Carlos Arturo Velandia, a former ELN commander, also told the Financial Times that if Venezuela’s power bloc fractures, the group would side with the most radical wing of Chavismo. Colectivos also function as armed enforcers of political loyalty. "We are the ones being called on to defend this revolutionary process radically, without hesitation — us colectivos are the fundamental tool to continue this fight," said Luis Cortéz, commander of the Colectivo Catedral Combativa. "We are always, and always will be, fighting and in the streets." Other armed actors include the Segunda Marquetalia, a splinter group of Colombia’s former FARC rebels. Both guerrilla groups work alongside local crime syndicates known as "sistemas," which have ties to politicians. The Tren de Aragua cartel, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., has also expanded across Venezuela and into Colombia, Chile and the U.S. As reported by Fox News Digital, an unsealed indictment alleges Maduro "participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption" involving drug trafficking with groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the ELN, FARC factions and Tren de Aragua, with most of the problematic groups named.