Caracas. A dramatic and historic turning point in Venezuela’s political landscape occurred when Delsey Rodríguez took charge as the country’s interim president following the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces. Rodriguez, who was vice president in the Maduro administration, was administered the oath of office by her brother and National Assembly leader Jorge Rodriguez. Becoming emotional during the swearing-in, Rodriguez described the military intervention as an illegitimate attack on the motherland and described the arrest of Maduro and his wife as the kidnapping of two heroes and expressed his participation in the public’s grief. A very interesting and human aspect that has emerged amidst this serious political crisis is that both the ousted Nicolas Maduro and the current interim President Delsey Rodriguez have a deep spiritual connection with India.
Both these leaders are ardent devotees of Indian spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been following Sai Baba’s principles for decades. The depth of this connection can be gauged from the fact that in 2005, Maduro himself visited Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh and personally met Baba. When Maduro was president, Sai Baba’s picture used to hang with respect in Maduro’s office along with the pictures of great Venezuelan heroes Simon Bolivar and Hugo Chavez. Even on the occasion of the birth centenary of Sai Baba in the year 2025, Maduro paid his tribute by calling him a beam of light.
Carrying forward this spiritual legacy, Delsey Rodriguez has also visited India several times. During his tenure as Vice President, he especially visited Puttaparthi and prayed at the Samadhi Temple of Sai Baba in August 2023 and October 2024. Her visit to India in October 2024 was in the news when she reached the ashram in search of peace and divinity straight after high-level diplomatic meetings in New Delhi. According to Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, his visits were purely personal. Sathya Sai Organization has a lot of influence in Venezuela and the unwavering faith of the top leaders there in Baba gives this organization a special place in the country.
On the other hand, the current government of Venezuela is trying hard to send a message to the world that the country’s sovereignty is still intact and it is not under pressure from external powers. Amid the uncertainty created after Maduro’s arrest, ruling party MP and Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guevara attended the swearing-in ceremony of the National Assembly in the capital Caracas. During this, Maduro’s son warned the international community that if the kidnapping of an elected head of state is accepted globally, then no country will be safe in the future. He called it not just a Venezuelan problem but a direct threat to global political stability. According to the Constitution of Venezuela, it is mandatory to hold elections within 30 days in the absence of the President, but in view of American interference and internal tension, the constitutional system there and the path to the future currently looks bleak.
