US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has laid out the Trump administration's plan to "recover" Venezuela, including oversight of the country's finances.
In an appearance before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Mr Rubio said the United States would only allow the Venezuelan government to use the country's money "for the benefit of the Venezuelan people".
The comments came after the US seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to face drug trafficking and weapons charges, and Delcy Rodríguez took over as interim president earlier this month.
The US would give Venezuela instructions on how the money could and could not be spent, and its interim leaders would be required to submit to the US a monthly "budget" outlining how they intended to use the money to fund public services, Mr Rubio told the committee hearing.
He also said the US would look to revitalise Venezuela's oil industry and place the revenue from oil sales into an offshore account set up in Qatar, overseen by the White House and US Treasury.
The revelations mark the latest efforts by the Trump administration to control the internal operations of Venezuela in a bid "to protect the national interest of the United States", according to Mr Rubio.
Ms Rodríguez has pushed back.
"Enough already of Washington's orders over politicians in Venezuela," she said on Sunday.
"Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. This Republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country."
Annette Idler, who is the director of the Global Security Programme at Oxford University, highlighted the complexity of the situation.
"Venezuela remains some sort of hybrid state where parts of the government, the guerilla groups, civilian militia and criminal organisations [are] just deeply entwined and most of these armed actors that have shaped security under Maduro are still in place," she said.
"In a way, some of them are now operating in an even more permissive environment.
"It's quite likely that many of these groups take advantage of the situation … to expand their power, their control."
This is what is known about each of those groups.
STATE SANCTIONED GROUP: National Bolivarian Armed Forces
The military is a decisive power broker in Venezuela and has been loyal to Mr Maduro's regime.
It refers to itself as the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana — FANB), named to honour South America's "liberator" Simón Bolívar, who led the campaign for independence from Spanish rule.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the FANB has about 123,000 active personnel, including 63,000 in the army, 25,500 in the navy, 11,500 in the air force and 23,000 in the national guard. These are supplemented by about 8,000 reservists.
"Although severely weakened by a years-long economic crisis, Venezuela's armed forces remain a formidable actor," Rebecca Hanson and Veronica Zubillaga wrote for The Conversation.
The FANB's influence stems far beyond traditional defence roles.
After a failed military coup in 2002, the then-president, Hugo Chávez, began installing military officers in key government and civilian leadership positions.
The adoption of the so-called "civic-military" model has led to the military's deep entrenchment in both political and economic spheres, with the FANB now holding significant positions in key sectors.
Military personnel are present on the boards of dozens of public companies and across government ministries.
"The Venezuelan armed forces really remain the central power broker," Dr Idler from the University of Oxford said.
"They have been very important for decades, and they're still there.
"Loyalty, in that sense, has been secured through the control of ministries and government revenues, and not necessarily ideology."
Venezuela's highest-ranking military officer is Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
General Padrino Lopez has formally run the military for more than 10 years and was entrusted by Mr Maduro with preserving the loyalty of the disparate factions of the country's armed forces.
Under his command, his units have been responsible for suppressing anti-government protests, according to reports by Human Rights Watch and United Nations-appointed investigators.
General Padrino Lopez described Mr Maduro's capture as a "cowardly kidnapping," saying armed forces and police units across the country had been activated to repel what he called "imperialist aggression" by the US.
He has reaffirmed his support and the FANB's support for interim president Ms Rodríguez.
Dr Idler believes General Padrino Lopez and the military faction within the Venezuelan government would be unlikely to turn against the interim president.
"She has been in [government] for a very long time. She's basically been Maduro's right-hand, has been very influential and at the moment she is very capable," Dr Idler said.
"She's also been very clear internally that she rejects the US actions, which is, of course, important for her to do to still have the support from this inner circle, but also from the wider public, or from those who supported Maduro in the past."
STATE SANCTIONED GROUP: The Bolivarian Militia
The Bolivarian Militia is the fifth pillar of the FANB, integrating civilian volunteers into the military.
It has between 200,000 and 300,000 civilian members, who are embedded across neighbourhoods, state institutions, and workplaces.
The militia was originally created in 2005 by Mr Chávez, and is committed to the defence of the "revolution".
According to the CIA World Factbook, the volunteers receive periodic training in return for a salary or payment.
Analysis from the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan global affairs research and analysis organisation, states that training is generally limited, and equipment used by members is "poor".
In December, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned public life in Venezuela had become increasingly militarised, heightening the risk of violence in a society grappling with high levels of crime.
His office had received reports of coerced enlistment into the Bolivarian Militia, including of adolescents and older people.
There were also accounts that authorities were encouraging citizens to report on relatives and neighbours through a state-sponsored mobile app.
"Such policies breed fear, mistrust, and self-censorship," Mr Türk said.
The force was called up in September following the deployment of US Navy ships in the South Caribbean.
After Mr Maduro's seizure by the US, General Padrino López called on the militia to be the "help of the society", and to defend the constitution against "interventionism".
Benigno Alarcón, a political analyst at Venezuela's Andrés Bello Catholic University, told the BBC he believed Mr Maduro did not plan for the militia to act as a "human shield".
Dr Idler agreed, saying a sense of collective patriotism was used by the Venezuelan government to consolidate its power and to encourage volunteers to fight for their nation.
"The military capacity that they have is more symbolic than operational," she said.
"They don't have the kind of training the proper military armed forces have. They don't have the battlefield experience.
"Receiving a weapon has a 'big status' factor… It's another way for the government to keep their support."
After being called to take up arms by Mr Maduro, Dr Idler said she expected the civilian militia would be unsure of its role under Venezuela's new leadership.
STATE SANCTIONED GROUP: Bolivarian National Guard
The Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) is a sub-branch of the military, responsible for a range of internal security functions, including maintaining public order and safety, border control, and civil defence roles.
It has about 23,000 active personnel, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and reports to both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior, Justice, and Peace.
The volunteer force was once considered to be better trained than the army. But when it was authorised to double its numbers in 2011, new recruits were only required to train for six months rather than two years.
In December last year, a UN-appointed fact-finding mission found the GNB was "implicated in a decade-long pattern of killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence targeting protesters and opponents of President Nicolás Maduro".
"The facts we have documented show the role of the GNB in a pattern of systematic and coordinated repression against opponents, or those perceived as such, which has continued for more than a decade," Marta Valinas, head of the fact-finding mission, said.
"The torture, ill-treatment, and acts of sexual violence we have verified — including assaults and rape — were not isolated incidents.
"They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish and break victims."
There have also been instances of forces rebelling against the government.
After disputed elections in January 2019, a group of 27 members of the National Guard attempted to take over a military base in north-western Caracas.
The officers were ultimately arrested, but not before they had posted a video on social media saying they no longer recognised Mr Maduro and called on Venezuelans to "go out onto the streets" against the government.
STATE SANCTIONED GROUP: The Police Forces
The day-to-day policing of Venezuela is split among 147 different groups that range in jurisdiction from municipal to national.
The largest of those forces is a group known as the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), which is the country's formal law enforcement agency, according to the Access to Justice non-profit.
Laws passed by Venezuela's National Assembly task the PNB with maintaining public order.
Created in 2009 under Mr Chavez, the PNB had more than 26,000 officers among its ranks in 2017, but Mr Maduro later sought to increase that figure by at least 20,000.
The group is known for its use of rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters at rallies, and has been associated with the excessive use of force against political opponents of the Maduro regime, according to Human Rights Watch.
Adjacent to the PNB sit other bodies tasked with more investigative duties, such as Venezuela's special action forces — which were created by Mr Maduro in 2017.
Armoured vehicles and snipers associated with that group were deployed in 2019 in the wake of former opposition leader Juan Guaidó attempting to orchestrate what Mr Maduro later labelled a months-long coup.
There is also the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), which is mostly responsible for the domestic surveillance of citizens and helping to maintain national security, and the CICPC — a criminal investigatory body.
The SEBIN's headquarters is based in a massive, multi-tiered building in central Caracas that was originally constructed to become a shopping complex before it was overtaken by the government.
It has since become the SEBIN's centre for incarceration of political prisoners.
In 2022, a UN report found "opposition politicians, journalists, protesters, and human rights defenders" were subjected to torture inside the prison under orders made by "individuals at the highest political levels".
Laurent Saleh, a human rights activist who was imprisoned by the Maduro regime for four years, told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2018 the building was "the pure embodiment of a mafia state".
"Extortion reigns there, especially financial extortion, on a scale no-one can imagine," he said.
"There are prisoners who have paid as much as $200,000 for a slightly better cell. Their families have gone into debt, and so have their children and grandchildren.
"In El Helicoide, they treat the prisoners worse than dogs, and most of them endure it."
Human Rights Watch says each of the arms of the police forces has been linked to incidents where "they resorted systematically to excessive force to disperse protests against the government, often in situations in which the use of that force did not appear justified".
"The PNB and CICPC have benefited from widespread corruption under Chavismo," Dr Hanson and Professor Zubillaga said.
"Their officers are involved in rampant extortion and kidnapping, and both have played central roles in systematic state violence during the Maduro era."
GUERILLA GROUP: The National Liberation Army
The US Department of State describes the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, as "the most significant armed group in both Colombia and Venezuela".
Formed in Colombia in the 60s, the political rebel group "seeks to control critical areas of the country — particularly those associated with drug trafficking — and frequently engages in armed confrontations", according to the US government.
Dr Hanson and Professor Zubillaga say the ELN has a presence along the Colombia-Venezuela border, and is "well-armed and deeply enmeshed in illegal mining, extortion and smuggling".
US authorities believe the group operates in at least 40 Venezuelan municipalities, in eight states and has come to replace the Colombian revolutionary guerilla group FARC.
Its focus is mostly on Colombian authorities, however the ELN has based itself in Venezuela as a means to escape persecution.
"They have largely moved away from pursuing national political power toward capturing local state infrastructure and establishing parallel authorities to control illicit markets," Dr Hanson and Professor Zubillaga wrote.
"Unlike local gangs, however, these groups maintain articulated political agendas."
The rebels have effectively had a de facto agreement with the Venezuelan government since the Chavez regime, which allowed them to continue their illegal operations in the country's western, south-western and central states, according to the Insight Crime think tank.
"Today, the ELN uses Venezuelan states like Apure as hideouts from where its fighters and leaders can run illegal businesses such as drug trafficking and gasoline smuggling," the think tank said.
"In addition, the guerillas exercise strong social control in areas of Apure, acting as a de facto power, resolving disputes between citizens, and maintaining a type of criminal governance."
The US government says the group has about 2,500 active members, led by military chief Eliecer Herlinto Chamorro Acosta, and is known to commit targeted assassinations, hostage kidnappings and attacks on critical infrastructure.
GUERILLA GROUP: The Colectivos
Formed in the wake of a failed internal military coup attempt against Mr Chavez in 2002, the Colectivos are pro-regime militia groups designed to provide the president with an additional layer of armed security, according to the global conflict monitor ACLED.
Insight Crime says the Colectivos are known as "knights of steel" who ride motorcycles, wear civilian clothing but cover their faces in public, are heavily armed and have a presence in at least 16 states in the nation.
They are mostly based in the 23 de Enero neighbourhood of Caracas, near to where Mr Chavez's burial site and the Venezuelan presidential Miraflores Palace are located.
The paramilitary groups are not collectively organised. They exist as various geographic factions and were given access to government funding and arms in 2006.
"Armed colectivos have since functioned as the main governmental weapon against dissent, and their masked, motorcycle-riding members have been known to target protesters at anti-government demonstrations," ACLED said.
The militants were found to have links to dozens of killings of Venezuelans who protested the result of the 2024 presidential election, according to Human Rights Watch.
The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Mr Maduro's socialist party, announced his victory in 2024 despite his opposition raising allegations of electoral fraud and a cover-up of tallies that showed voters had opted to remove him from power.
In the days after the US attack on Venezuela and Mr Maduro's seizure, large groups of Colectivos were seen patrolling streets in parts of Caracas, brandishing assault rifles.
The groups are heavily anti-imperialist and pro-Chavismo, the authoritarian political ideology forged by Mr Chavez that focuses on the state control of key national assets.
They are also known to have close ties to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, one of Ms Rodriguez's political colleagues in the interim government.
"Should Chavista elites be perceived as acquiescing to US pressure going forward, these groups could interpret such accommodation as ideological betrayal and turn to guerilla violence," Dr Hanson and Professor Zubillaga wrote.
Anecdotal reports surfaced on social media after Mr Maduro's seizure that suggested members of the Colectivos were harassing people celebrating the president's removal.
In the hours after, shots were heard in the area surrounding the Miraflores Palace, and Mr Cabello released a video of himself surrounded by a group of men wearing black clothes and face coverings, chanting "loyalty forever, traitors never".
Dr Idler described the Colectivos as "often more frightening than the formal security forces" because of their fragmented organisation.
"They operate loosely across the country without much control," she said.
"Venezuela remains some sort of hybrid state where parts of the government, the guerilla groups, civilian militia and criminal organisations [are] just deeply entwined, and most of these armed actors that have shaped security under Maduro are still in place.
"In a way, some of them are now operating in an even more permissive environment.
"It's quite likely that many of these groups take advantage of the situation … to expand their power, their control."
OTHER CRIMINAL GROUPS: Gangs
Operating outside of the realm of influence of government-endorsed or guerilla groups, smaller gangs operate mostly in suburban and regional areas.
Many gangs have little to no political affiliation and focus their criminal activities on smaller offences such as robberies, extortion and kidnappings in order to control territorial patches, according to the independent conflict monitor ACLED.
Some of these groups, known as "bandas criminales", resort to taking part in drug trafficking operations in order to supplement their cash flows, the organisation said.
There are also more organised and sophisticated criminal enterprises known as "megabandas".
At least one of those groups has drawn the attention of US President Donald Trump since his inauguration 12 months ago.
Mr Trump has argued that the drug network known as Tren de Aragua (TdA), which formed from inside one of the country's notorious prisons, poses an unacceptable threat to the lives of Americans.
In February last year, the US State Department acted on an executive order signed by Mr Trump to designate TdA as a foreign terrorist organisation.
"Tren de Aragua members engage in 'diverse criminal activities', including money laundering, drug and human trafficking, kidnapping, organized retail crime, extortion, and murder," a report filed on the cartel in the US House of Representatives says.
"Tren de Aragua's presence has spread throughout the United States and has notable criminal impact on cities across the country."
Alleged TdA members were detained in the US and deported to El Salvador last year, where they were later imprisoned.
