Venezuela’s notorious Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a suspected narco-terrorist with a U.S. bounty on his head, unleashed a vicious tirade against the Catholic Church on his January 29, 2026, propaganda show Con el Mazo Dando. Labeling clergy “fascists in cassocks,” he accused them of ignoring regime victims while cozying up to opposition leader María Corina Machado, who met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican post-Maduro’s January 3 arrest by U.S. forces.
Cabello’s venom echoes his long-standing war on the Church, once branding it a U.S. “accomplice” for not backing the socialist tyrants during Trump’s pressure campaign. Yet the Church has fearlessly championed human rights, demanding freedom for hundreds of political prisoners. Cardinal Baltazar Porras urged support for detainees, while Barquisimeto Archbishop Polito Rodríguez called for their release during the massive La Divina Pastora procession—drawing nearly 4 million faithful in mid-January, the first since Maduro’s downfall.
Cabello sneered at the bishops for defending “delinquents,” denying political prisoners exist and touting 808 releases under acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s “peace” initiative. In truth, Foro Penal confirms only 297 political prisoners freed since January 8, amid reports of regime torture. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted the slow releases as steps toward democracy, crediting Trump’s canceled strikes for pressuring the crumbling regime.
Cabello’s show, now audience-free and relocated, doubles as a threat platform. He warned Venevisión for covering Machado’s Washington meeting with Rubio: “Without media hype, her figure fades away.” For over a decade, he’s used it to menace dissidents, exposing the socialist’s desperation.This assault on faith highlights the Maduro holdouts’ moral bankruptcy, persecuting the Church for defending life and liberty against atheistic tyranny.