“Trump has implied that Venezuela is now a US protectorate, so she serves at the will of the US president,” says Christopher Sabatini, senior research fellow on Latin America at Chatham House think tank. “She has also been investigated by the DEA – there’s not a conviction, or bounty on her head, or indictment, but that threat has hung out there. The threat is, ‘we have the goods on you’.” The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) did not comment when approached by the BBC.