Mike Baker

In 2020, the Justice Department indicted him as a senior figure in Cartel de los Soles, the narco terror network that Washington says is embedded in Venezuela's government.

Cabello denies the allegations.

According to people familiar with the discussions, communications between U.S.

officials and Cabello date to the early days of the current Trump administration.

The discussions have touched on Cabello's U.S.

sanctions designation and the indictment he faces, and notably, they have taken place both directly and through intermediaries.

Now, in the current post-Maduro landscape, Cabello has pledged his support for Rodriguez.

But the Trump administration cautions that such pledges don't necessarily reflect the balance of power behind the scenes.

Although Cabello and Rodriguez have both operated at the core of the Venezuelan state in their ruling United Socialist Party for years,

They've never been considered close allies.

Trump officials seem to treat Cabello as one of several Maduro era figures tolerated as temporary power brokers during the undefined transition period as Washington moves to secure access to Venezuela's oil reserves.

At the same time, those same officials worry about his history of repression to opposition groups.

In the hours after Maduro's capture, the question of why Cabello wasn't also picked up was raised repeatedly.

And just days later, Cabello denounced the operation, declaring, quote, Venezuela will not surrender.

But since then, it appears both Washington and Cabello are playing ball with each other.

Washington to avoid an eruption of the security forces that Cabello oversees, and Cabello to likely avoid arrest by the U.S.,

That relationship is playing out on the ground, as security forces that had been conducting searches at checkpoints have eased up, and both Trump and the Venezuelan government say political prisoners have been released, a process that Cabello is overseeing.

Human rights groups, however, say releases are slow, and hundreds remain unjustly detained, leaving open whether Cabello is truly steadying Venezuela's transition or is quietly preserving the leverage that he holds for his own purposes and survival.

Staying in the region, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA in the U.S., is warning U.S.

airlines to fly with caution over parts of Latin America as military operations and GPS interference linked to Washington's crackdown on regional threats reshape the airspace.