Nicolás Maduro, who ruled Venezuela from 2013 until his removal and capture by U.S. forces in early 2026, is widely associated with the country’s deep economic collapse, authoritarian political practices, and serious human‑rights abuses, as well as a recent international crisis triggered by U.S. military action to oust him. Below is a compact “quick scoop” on what he did and why he is so controversial.

Who Maduro Is

  • Nicolás Maduro is a former bus driver and union leader who rose through Hugo Chávez’s movement, serving as foreign minister and then vice president before becoming president in 2013 after Chávez’s death.
  • He led the self‑styled “Bolivarian” socialist government, promising to continue Chávez’s project but ultimately presiding over one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern Latin American history.

Economy and Daily Life

  • Under Maduro, Venezuela suffered hyperinflation, loss of most of its oil output, and the collapse of public services, leading to widespread poverty and shortages of food, medicine, electricity, and fuel.
  • Economic controls, corruption, and mismanagement—combined with sanctions later on—helped push millions of Venezuelans to flee the country, creating a major regional refugee crisis by the mid‑2020s.

Politics and Democracy

  • His government sidelined or co‑opted key democratic institutions, including the opposition‑led National Assembly, stacked the courts, and used new bodies like a pro‑government Constituent Assembly to neutralize rivals.
  • Elections under Maduro were repeatedly criticized by international observers and human‑rights groups as unfair, with opposition candidates barred, voters pressured, and the state apparatus used to favor the ruling party.

Repression and Human Rights

  • Security forces and intelligence services under Maduro were accused by the UN and NGOs of arbitrary detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings of opponents and protesters, including abuses in notorious facilities like El Helicoide.
  • These patterns led to UN investigations and discussions of possible crimes against humanity, putting Venezuela’s human‑rights record under intense global scrutiny by the early 2020s.

Latest Crisis: His Removal

  • By late 2025 and early 2026, tensions sharply escalated as the United States accused Maduro of drug trafficking and links to armed criminal groups, ramping up military pressure around Venezuela.
  • On January 3, 2026, U.S. forces carried out strikes inside Venezuela, and President Donald Trump announced that Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country, an operation critics say violated international law and set a dangerous precedent.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.