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Diosdado Cabello

Diosdado Cabello

-100

Net harmfulFormula-derived score

The through-line is party-and-police enforcement: OFAC SDN 18 May 2018, an unsealed 26 March 2020 SDNY narco-terrorism indictment that remains an allegation, and the interior appointment after the contested 28 July 2024 election. A living enforcer is scored on those instruments, not as a unique later conviction. The largest negative contribution to the formula-derived score is “Maduro names Diosdado Cabello interior minister after the contested 28 July election” (2024).

Top harm

Maduro names Diosdado Cabello interior minister after the contested 28 July election

−102 pts

PSUV strongman interior ministryCon El Mazo Dando intimidationKnock Knock detention treated as compatible with a 2002 acting-presidency photograph

Impact

Biggest harms and offsets: signed contributions to the formula-derived score, ranked by size.

Biggest harms

Lowers the score
Editorial assessment (context, not the score)

The heaviest documented costs sit on post-election interior command and long-running intimidation instruments, not on a personality adjective.

First, designation. On 18 May 2018 OFAC designated Diosdado Cabello under E.O. 13692 with his brother, his wife, and alleged front man Rafael Sarria (Treasury sm0389 (opens in a new tab)). Treasury’s narcotics language in that release is an allegation inside a sanctions instrument, not a conviction.

Second, indictment. On 26 March 2020 SDNY unsealed a superseding indictment charging him, as alleged, with narco-terrorism conspiracy alongside Nicolás Maduro (DOJ (opens in a new tab); AP (opens in a new tab)). Store the unsealing.

Third, interior. On 27 August 2024 Maduro named him interior minister after the 28 July election (AP (opens in a new tab)). Knock Knock / Tun Tun was already a named detention campaign; from the new post he sat over police. Quote the appointment.

Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez are live counterparts. Confidence is high on Treasury, DOJ, and the appointment locators, and medium where arrest-count series diverge. This paragraph is an assessment of those paths, not a substitute number.

Indicators affected

Sorted by the size of this person’s signed contribution. The observed state is the indicator’s own reading, not this person’s doing.

Accountability & contradictions

Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.

Responsibility

What could change this assessment

  • Lifetime coverage has not been assessed: the record reflects stored facts only (2018–2024).

Causal path

Person → Fact → Driver → Indicator. Select a path to inspect its factors; the full network opens on demand.

  1. PersonDiosdado Cabello
  2. FactMaduro names Diosdado Cabello interior minister after the contested 28 July election
  3. DriverElectoral Integrity and Competitiveness
  4. IndicatorHaving a say in government
−102 pts

Contribution size 1 · Responsibility 0.5 · Fact impact −1 · Driver weight 0.55 · Driver → indicator 0.8 · Indicator importance 0.8 · Deviation factor −3 · Confidence 1

Timeline

The most relevant dated facts, newest first.

  1. 27 August 2024 · Cabello PSUV strongman and interior repression

    Maduro names Diosdado Cabello interior minister after the contested 28 July election
    −102 pts

  2. 26 March 2020 · Cabello PSUV strongman and interior repression

    SDNY unseals narco-terrorism indictment naming Diosdado Cabello, as alleged

  3. 18 May 2018 · Cabello PSUV strongman and interior repression

    OFAC designates Diosdado Cabello and his alleged corruption network

Evidence & methodology

How the record is sourced and how the score is derived.

3 of 3 linked facts verified, drawing on 3 distinct sources (2018–2024).

Sources include Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Sources

  1. 1.Asamblea Nacional — Presidente Nicolás Maduro designa a Diosdado Cabello ministro de InteriorAsamblea Nacional de Venezuela
  2. 2.SDNY — Manhattan U.S. Attorney announces narco-terrorism charges against Maduro, Cabello and othersU.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
  3. 3.Treasury — Targets Influential Former Venezuelan Official and His Corruption Network (18 May 2018)U.S. Department of the Treasury

The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed · Sources: 3

Expert analysis

An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.

Identity and office

Diosdado Cabello has been Venezuela’s interior, justice and peace minister since 27 August 2024. As of September 2026 he is a living interior minister. Nicolás Maduro is the live captured president. Delcy Rodríguez is the live encargada. This run does not mint cleaner twins.

He is not an anti-coup saint. On 18 May 2018 the U.S. Treasury designated him under E.O. 13692, two days before a presidential election it refused to recognise, accusing him in the same release of narcotics trafficking, money laundering and embezzlement (Treasury (opens in a new tab); AP (opens in a new tab)). Those narcotics sentences are Treasury allegations.

On 26 March 2020 the Southern District of New York unsealed a superseding indictment charging Cabello, as alleged, with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons counts with Maduro and others (SDNY (opens in a new tab)). A State Department bounty sat as neighbourhood. He has not been tried to a completed U.S. verdict on this page. Mark the row as indictment, not conviction.

On 27 August 2024 Maduro named him interior minister in a cabinet shuffle one month after the contested 28 July election, the same day Delcy Rodríguez took hydrocarbons (AN (opens in a new tab); AP (opens in a new tab)). Human Rights Watch’s Americas director called the appointment a bellwether of more repression. Operation Tun Tun / Knock Knock was already a named post-election detention campaign; BBC recorded door-to-door arrests (BBC (opens in a new tab)). Government “more than 2,000” and Foro Penal/Provea tallies diverge. Quote the appointment.

Con El Mazo Dando remains his intimidation programme. Jorge Rodríguez remains unresolved.

Documented benefits

The offsets that a commissioned-positive portrait would lead with are real only where dated. A 2002 36-hour acting presidency after the Carmona coup is identity of how Chávez returned. It does not rebate 27 August 2024.

Contributions and limits of responsibility

Maduro named him interior minister. Treasury designated. SDNY charged, as alleged. He took the 2024 office and hosted the programme. Sharing a Maduro CNE proclamation as parent is not a reason to drop the interior appointment. Sharing a U.S. indictment as allegation is not a reason to print a unique kilo as Contribution.size.

Causal chain through facts

18 May 2018 strengthens cabello-psuv-strongman as a completed inner-circle SDN. 26 March 2020 strengthens the same file as an unsealed allegation, not a verdict. 27 August 2024 weakens civic space and electoral integrity as interior command after a contested election. None hang on territorial-revisionism, ukraine-war, or Soviet-scope rows.

What the score does not say

This page does not promise an exact number. Direction is negative: 2018 SDN, 2020 indictment-as-allegation, 2024 interior appointment. Jorge Rodríguez remains a name on this file, not an invented biography.

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