Florida lawmakers are urging the White House to move against Diosdado Cabello, one of the most powerful men in Venezuela and one of the most wanted Venezuelan officials in the United States, after an angry exchange with American rescue workers deployed to help after twin earthquakes devastated the country's northwestern coast.
The push, led by Sen. Rick Scott and joined by Florida representatives María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez, comes as Venezuela faces one of the deadliest disasters in its modern history. Nearly 2,000 people have been confirmed dead and about 64,000 remain missing after the back-to-back quakes tore through coastal communities, collapsing homes, cutting off roads and overwhelming hospitals already strained by years of crisis.
Los trabajadores de rescate estadounidenses e internacionales, incluyendo nuestros militares, deben poder hacer sus trabajos en Venezuela sin interferencias. Ellos están ahí para salvar vidas.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) June 29, 2026
Cualquiera que se interponga en el camino de eso, incluido Diosdado Cabello, será…
Only a criminal would stand between rescue workers and people trapped beneath the rubble.
— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) June 29, 2026
And that’s exactly what Diosdado Cabello is.
The Delcy Rodríguez regime must understand this with absolute clarity: it must allow all humanitarian aid arriving from around the world to… https://t.co/qiHmYGTNAD
https://t.co/v2luq9ccun pic.twitter.com/60gR0AfXz2
— Mario Díaz-Balart (@MarioDB) June 29, 2026
But the humanitarian emergency has now collided with Washington's long-running pursuit of Cabello, a former military officer, one of Hugo Chávez's closest allies, a former vice president and the current interior minister under Nicolás Maduro. For years, U.S. officials have described him as a central figure in Venezuela's power structure. Today, he controls the country's internal security apparatus and remains closely linked to armed pro-government groups known as colectivos, which opposition leaders and human rights groups have accused of helping intimidate and repress government critics.
The U.S. government has offered up to $25 million for information leading to Cabello's arrest or conviction. Federal prosecutors have accused him of involvement in narcoterrorism and drug trafficking tied to Venezuela's so-called Cartel de los Soles. Cabello has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and the Maduro government has dismissed U.S. allegations as politically motivated.
For Scott and other Florida Republicans, Cabello's reported confrontation with U.S. rescue personnel has turned a rescue mission into a test of the Trump administration's willingness to confront one of Maduro's most feared enforcers.
"If Diosdado Cabello is close enough to threaten American rescue workers, he is close enough to be captured," the lawmakers argued in their appeal to the White House, according to people familiar with the request.
The exchange allegedly took place as U.S. search-and-rescue teams were working in disaster zones along Venezuela's battered northwestern coast. American crews were among the international responders sent to assist with collapsed buildings, medical evacuations and the search for survivors trapped under rubble. The mission was framed by Washington as a humanitarian operation, not a political one.
That distinction is now under pressure.
Cabello is not a minor cabinet official. He has been part of Chavismo since its origin story, standing with Chávez before the movement became a government and later occupying nearly every major position in the system it built. He briefly served as vice president in 2002, led the National Assembly, became a dominant figure inside the ruling Socialist Party and later took charge of Venezuela's interior ministry, giving him authority over police, intelligence and domestic security forces.
His name has also long carried a darker meaning for Venezuelan exiles, opposition activists and U.S. officials. To them, Cabello represents the hard edge of Maduro's rule: the armed networks, the intimidation machinery and the loyalist structures that helped keep the government in power while millions of Venezuelans fled economic collapse, political persecution and insecurity.
That is why the Florida lawmakers are now pressing the White House to consider whether the presence of U.S. personnel on Venezuelan soil creates a narrow opening to act.
The request places the Trump administration in a delicate position. Any attempt to arrest Cabello inside Venezuela would carry enormous legal, diplomatic and security risks, especially while international teams are trying to rescue survivors. It could also endanger aid workers still operating in areas controlled by Venezuelan security forces.
At the same time, supporters of tougher action argue that Cabello's alleged behavior toward rescue teams shows why he should not be allowed to operate with impunity during a disaster.
The White House has not publicly announced any change in its mission. Officials have continued to emphasize that the priority is saving lives, delivering supplies and supporting emergency crews as the search for the missing continues.
For families waiting outside collapsed buildings, the political fight is secondary to a more urgent question: whether anyone beneath the rubble is still alive.
But in Washington and Miami, the earthquake response has opened a new front in the battle over Venezuela's future. A tragedy that began as a natural disaster is now also testing how far the United States is willing to go against one of Chavismo's most powerful surviving figures.
