A United States federal court has ordered captured former president Nicolás Maduro and several high-ranking chavista officials to pay $314 million in damages to more than ten American plaintiffs who accused them of kidnapping, torture and terrorism. The ruling, issued by the Southern District of Florida, explicitly excludes Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, as well as the state oil company PDVSA. Among those held liable are Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Agriculture Minister Vladimir Padrino and businessman Alex Saab, who is currently detained in Miami on money-laundering charges. The judge found that Maduro had “historically kidnapped and arbitrarily detained U.S. citizens” to exchange them for Venezuelan prisoners in the United States, and that his actions constituted international terrorism and narcoterrorism intended to intimidate the American civilian population.

Viewed from Washington, the court’s selective targeting aligns with a broader diplomatic calculus. On the same day, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South America Luis Mendez told Congress that the U.S. “will not obstruct” Machado’s return to Venezuela, though he cautioned that the right conditions must be in place to prevent her arrest. Mendez confirmed that Washington has pressed the interim Rodríguez government to permit her entry. The exclusion of Delcy Rodríguez from the lawsuit, according to analysts in the region, signals a U.S. effort to maintain a working relationship with the post-Maduro authorities while isolating the former president and his inner circle. This dual-track approach is further illustrated by the reported role of Diosdado Cabello, who despite a $25 million U.S. reward for his capture and longstanding accusations of drug trafficking and human rights abuses, is now described in press accounts as a U.S. collaborator within the interim administration.

The diplomatic choreography has drawn sharp criticism from Venezuelan opposition figures and intellectuals, who argue that the U.S.-backed transition has stalled. In an analysis published by El Mundo, three Venezuelan commentators described the current arrangement as “a Maduro government without Maduro,” pointing to the continued dominance of chavista structures six months after the military intervention that removed Maduro in January. The double earthquake on 24 June, they note, exposed the interim government’s incompetence and corruption, while Machado’s exclusion from the political process has generated widespread indignation. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who left Venezuela in December to receive the award, has repeatedly attempted to return but has been blocked by what she describes as diplomatic pressure from Caracas. Opposition voices are demanding the release of political prisoners, the return of exiled leaders, the appointment of an independent electoral council and a clear electoral timetable.

Negotiations between the Rodríguez government and the opposition are scheduled to begin on 1 August, but without Machado at the table. Caracas refused to accept her as interlocutor, and Washington has instead backed Dinorah Figuera, the president of the 2015 National Assembly, as the opposition’s representative. The U.S. State Department has framed the talks as a step toward implementing the “stabilisation, reconstruction and transition” plan outlined in the Panama Manifesto. Meanwhile, the civil judgment against Maduro runs parallel to a criminal narcoterrorism case in New York, where his wife Cilia Flores is also detained, and to Alex Saab’s money-laundering proceedings in Miami. The dossier remains open on multiple fronts, with the unresolved question of Machado’s return and the 1 August dialogue set to test whether the U.S. strategy can reconcile judicial pressure with political accommodation.