On January 8, 2026, Rebecca Bill Chavez, President & CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue, participated in the panel “Venezuela After Maduro” hosted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. During the discussion, she highlighted that while Maduro is gone, key figures from his regime remain in place, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. She characterized the U.S. military operation that removed Maduro as a highly sophisticated, well-organized mission that demonstrated successful coordination between human and signals intelligence. However, she cautioned that any potential “second wave” involving U.S. boots on the ground would be a very different scenario, one the Trump administration likely wants to avoid. Chavez noted that Venezuela’s complex landscape of competing armed groups could lead to a prolonged conflict.
