New Delhi: As Delcy Eloina Rodríguez steps into Venezuela’s highest office, her devotional connection to late Indian spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba has drawn attention.
The Venezuelan Vice President, now Acting President after Nicolás Maduro was “captured” in a US raid Saturday, is known for her spiritual inclinations rooted in India and has made multiple visits to Sathya Sai’s ashram Prasanthi Nilayam in Andhra Pradesh and offered respects at his memorial.
Rodríguez was sworn-in Monday after Venezuela’s Supreme Court asked her to assume presidential powers, declaring that Maduro was in “material and temporary impossibility” to exercise his functions. It said that Rodríguez would “assume and exercise, in an acting capacity, all the attributes, duties and powers inherent to the office of President to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defence of the nation”.
Rodríguez, who served as Venezuelan Vice President since 2018, last visited India in October 2024, shortly after attending the BRICS summit in Kazan. After meeting then Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar in New Delhi, her retinue made a personal trip to Puttaparthi, where the ashram is located, to pay obeisance at Sathya Sai’s memorial.
She, along with Venezuelan ministers, also visited Prasanthi Nilayam in October 2019. And again, in August 2023 while she was in India as part of a Venezuelan delegation to attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi. That time, she was accompanied by Capaya Rodríguez, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Delcy Rodriguez has spoken about the sense of calm and tranquillity she felt in the ashram. On each visit, she was received by R.J. Rathnakar, managing trustee of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.
Not just the interim president, Maduro’s connection with Sathya Sai is also well known and predates his presidency.
Visitors to Maduro’s private office at his Miraflores Palace in Caracas often noticed a large framed photo of Sathya Sai Baba, placed next to portraits of revolutionary figures like Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez.
He has visited India four or five times, in official capacity as well as on personal trips.
Before becoming President of Venezuela, Maduro, as foreign minister, had visited Puttaparthi with wife Cilia Flores and reportedly had a private audience with Sathya Sai, who passed away in 2011. He also visited the ashram after the spiritual guru’s death, always with a large Venezuelan delegation and stayed at Shanti Bhavan, the VIP guest house there.
In India in 2012 for a diplomatic visit, Maduro had highlighted his reverence for Sathya Sai and also helped push an official condolence resolution in Venezuela’s National Assembly after his demise.
Venezuela stood out as the only Latin American country to declare a day of national mourning for the spiritual guru. The country recognised him as a spiritual figure who had touched lives far beyond India, including in Venezuela.
On 23 November, 2025, amid political and economic turmoil in his country, Maduro marked Sathya Sai’s 100th birth year and called him a “being of light” in an official statement.
Sathya Sai became known in Venezuela owing to Venezuelan devotees Arlette Meyer and Elizabeth Palmer, who visited him in 1972. Arlette became a devout follower after meeting him several times and also translated a book about him, Man of Miracles, into Spanish. On 22 August, 1974, she even opened the first Sai Centre in Caracas.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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