According to reports, Venezuela is on the brink after the U.S. captured and arrested former President Nicolás Maduro, with armed militias, guerrilla groups, and criminal networks posing a threat to stability.

With the interim taking control under the backing of President Trump’s administration, analysts have cautioned that the country is rife with heavily armed groups that could derail any progress toward stability.

Military analyst Andrei Serbin Pont, head of the Buenos Aires-based think tank Cries, stated, “All armed groups have the ability to sabotage any transition through the instability they can generate.”

He noted, “Parastate armed groups are present throughout Venezuela’s territory.”

Experts state that Rodríguez must win over the regime’s two most powerful hardliners: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.

Venezuelan military strategist José García said, “The focus is now on Diosdado Cabello because he is the most ideological, violent, and unpredictable element of the Venezuelan regime.”

Crisis Group analyst in Caracas Phil Gunson said, “Delcy has to tread carefully.”

He added, “They can’t strike any deal with Trump unless they get the approval of those with guns, essentially Padrino and Cabello.”

Since Maduro’s removal, government-aligned militias called ‘colectivos’ have been deployed in Caracas and other cities to maintain order and suppress dissent.

69-year-old shop owner Oswaldo said, “The future is uncertain; colectivos have weapons, and Colombian guerrillas are already in Venezuela, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

As previously reported by Digital, checkpoints have been set up in the capital, with searches of civilians’ phones and vehicles for signs of opposition to the U.S. raid.

Serbin Pont added, “That environment of instability benefits armed actors.”

Outside the capital, guerrilla groups and organized crime syndicates are taking advantage of the power vacuum along Venezuela’s borders and in its resource-rich interior.

Guerrillas now operate along Venezuela’s 2,219-kilometer border with Colombia and control illegal mining near the Orinoco oil belt.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian Marxist guerrilla group with thousands of fighters and designated a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, has functioned as a paramilitary force in Venezuela.

Crisis Group’s deputy director for Latin America Elizabeth Dickson said the ELN “in Venezuela has essentially functioned as a paramilitary force, aligned with the Maduro government’s interests until now.”

Former ELN commander Carlos Arturo Velandia also told the Financial Times that if Venezuela’s power bloc splits, the group would side with the most radical wing of Chavismo.

Colectivos also act as armed enforcers of political loyalty.

Luis Cortéz, commander of Colectivo Catedral Combativa, said, “We are called to radically defend this revolutionary process without hesitation; colectivos are the fundamental tool to continue this struggle.”

He added, “We are always and will always be fighting in the streets.”

Other armed actors include the Segunda Marquetalia, a splinter group of Colombia’s former FARC rebels. Both guerrilla groups collaborate with local crime syndicates called ‘sistemas’ that have links to politicians.

The Tren de Aragua cartel, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., has expanded across Venezuela and into Colombia, Chile, and the U.S.

As reported by Digital, [entity] ‘participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption’ involving drug trafficking with groups like Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the ELN, FARC factions, and Tren de Aragua, with most problematic groups named.