Venezuela’s Acting Prez Delcy Rodríguez Prays at Sri Sathya Sai Baba Mahasamadhi in Puttaparthi on Final Day of India Visit

There is a pattern unmistakable enough to call a tradition. Every time Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez sets foot on Indian soil, she finds her way to Puttaparthi . On June 6 , the final day of her five-day India visit, Venezuela's Acting President did exactly that, arriving at Prasanthi Nilayam to offer her reverential homage at the Divine Lotus Feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba .

She was received at the Sri Sathya Sai Airport by R.J. Rathnakar , Managing Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust , and proceeded to Sai Kulwant Hall to pay her obeisance at Bhagawan's Sannidhi, spending quiet moments in prayerful contemplation. She was later felicitated in the Bhajan Hall with a commemorative memento created specially for the 100th Birthday Celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba , a centenary year that has drawn devotees and dignitaries from across the world to this small town in Andhra Pradesh.

This was not her first time. Rodríguez visited Prasanthi Nilayam in October 2019 along with Venezuelan ministers, again in August 2023 as part of the Venezuelan delegation to the G20 Summit in New Delhi , and most recently in October 2024 shortly after attending the BRICS Summit in Kazan . On each occasion, she was received by R.J. Rathnakar paid her respects at Sai Baba's Mahasamadhi . This visit makes it the fourth time she has come to Puttaparthi and the first as a head of state .

That distinction matters. Rodríguez has spoken openly about what Baba means to her: "Many times, when I was in danger, I felt Baba with me , my family and also with my country." When she assumed office as acting president in January, days after President Nicolás Maduro was abducted by US forces , her very first press briefing invoked Sai Baba's teachings, urging Venezuelans toward "coexistence, mutual respect and recognition of others." She reached for Puttaparthi not in peaceful times but in the middle of her country's deepest political crisis.

This devotion runs deep in Venezuelan leadership. Maduro himself visited Prasanthi Nilayam in 2005 as Foreign Affairs Minister, met Baba personally, and kept a photograph of the guru in his office throughout his presidency. The Sai Trust has noted that Venezuela holds a special place among the 113 countries where the Sathya Sai movement is active.

For Andhra Pradesh, this is more than a diplomatic footnote. A nation navigating one of its gravest crises chose to end its India visit not in Mumbai's oil boardrooms but at a quiet ashram in the Krishna district foothills and that says everything about what Puttaparthi means to the world.