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His nickname is the Octopus, he hosts a TV show called Hitting it with a Sledgehammer and many Venezuelans consider him the real power in the land.
Diosdado Cabello runs the regime’s security apparatus and is perhaps the most feared, reviled and, in some quarters, revered government figure, with influence to rival that of the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.
As interior minister, Cabello controls the police and prisons and after three decades at the heart of Chavismo his influence – or tentacles – also stretch across the ruling socialist party and state enterprises.
With Donald Trump demanding Venezuela’s obeisance, the Caracas regime’s fate depends in part on whether Cabello, 62, retains his authority – and whether he uses it to bow to Washington or attempt a fightback.
Since the US raid in which Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted on 3 January, Cabello has patrolled Caracas with armed men and wielded a Fred Flintstone-style bludgeon on his TV show, known in Spanish as Con el Mazo Dando. The US has reportedly put Cabello on notice that he will be the next to fall unless he does its bidding.
Andrés Izarra, a former government minister who now lives in exile, believes Maduro’s abduction has undermined Cabello and that he will bow to the US. “Diosdado is a walking zombie,” Izarra said. “He’s been left with his pants down.”
The failure of Venezuela’s security apparatus to protect Maduro leaves Cabello little choice but to follow the lead of Rodríguez, and her brother, Jorge, the head of the national assembly, who have cooperated with the Trump administration, said Izarra.
“He just was totally overrun. I mean, he is the security minister. And they took away the head of state under his nose. I mean, what the fuck? He has no agency. He has no power.”
A US indictment and $25m (£19m) reward for information leading to Cabello’s arrest further restricts him, said Izarra, who has known him for many years. “He has a gun to his head. Either he does what the Rodríguezes do, or he’s going to be taken out. It’s very clear that the CIA is all over Venezuela right now [and] it won’t take much from them to take him out if needed.”
For those who loathe the interior minister, that is a happy prospect.
“We’ve always thought that Maduro was a mannequin incapable of taking decisions and that Diosdado was the one who actually made the decisions,” said a resident of 23 de Enero, a Caracas neighbourhood. “A lot of people around here are saying: ‘I hope they get this damn Diosdado – this guy’s the real ringleader.”
It is a grim irony that after years of rivalry with Maduro for supremacy, the president’s downfall leaves Cabello weaker, not stronger.
Venezuelans have long appreciated another, more trivial irony: Diosdado Cabello literally means god-given hair but the minister is largely bald and what hair is left is tightly cropped.
Born into humble means in the eastern state of Monagas, Cabello joined the military when Venezuela was a democratic, relatively wealthy country with close ties to the US. However, inequality and an economic crisis paved the way in 1992 foran attempted coup by his army mentor and co-conspirator, Hugo Chávez.
It flopped but Chávez then embraced electoral politics and swept to power in 1998, promising to redistribute wealth through a “Bolivarian revolution” that later endorsed socialism.
Chávez appointed his comrade to a series of posts – party leader, state telecommunications regulator, infrastructure minister, chief of staff, vice-president, governor of Miranda state – through which Cabello built a patronage network and acquired the octopus nickname.
Before his death in 2013 Chávez anointed Maduro as his heir. Cabello was denied the presidency but maintained his power base and profile. His TV show rallied party loyalists, assailed enemies – the then US senator now US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was called Narco Rubio – and featured performances from Cabello’s pop-singer daughter, Daniella.
In 2024 Maduro, facing turmoil after hijacking an election, appointed Cabello as interior minister to quash dissent. The security chief vowed to catch and punish opponents. “They’re hiding like rats but we’re going to grab them,” he said.
Canada, the EU and other governments joined the US in imposing sanctions against Cabello for alleged crimes including money laundering and human rights abuses. Washington claims he runs drugs through a military network labelled the Cartel of the Suns.
Since Maduro’s ouster Cabello has urged defiance and posed with police who chanted “always loyal, never traitors”. However, he is considered a pragmatist and knows that his liberty hinges on the regime’s survival. “He’s a family man – he loves his family and his family loves him a lot as well,” said Izarra. “He’s also a savvy political operator.”
Cabello’s task now is to project enough force to intimidate the regime’s opponents without triggering a fresh US strike that could put him in the crosshairs – a delicate balance.
For many Venezuelans, little has changed. “The guy they took [Maduro] is a puppet,” said a 34-year-old Venezuelan supermarket employee from Anzoátegui state. “The real boss is still in power.”
