Nicolás Maduro is the former president of Venezuela whose years in power were marked by deep economic collapse, heavy political repression, and, more recently, arrest on U.S. narco‑terrorism charges and removal from power.

Who Nicolás Maduro is

  • Nicolás Maduro is a Venezuelan politician who rose from bus driver and union activist to foreign minister and then president after Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013.
  • He remained in office through highly disputed elections and was sworn in for a third term in January 2025, even as many foreign governments refused to recognize the result.

What he did in Venezuela

  • Under Maduro, Venezuela’s economy shrank by more than 70% between 2012 and 2020, with hyperinflation reportedly exceeding 130,000%, and oil production collapsing to a fraction of former levels.
  • His government faced massive protests, arrests of opponents, and allegations of systematic human‑rights abuses, with international attention intensifying after opposition leader María Corina Machado received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle for democracy.

Allegations and criminal charges

  • U.S. prosecutors charged Maduro as part of a long‑running “narco‑terrorism” conspiracy, alleging he and other officials used the Venezuelan state to help move cocaine to the United States over two decades.
  • He has been accused of working with criminal and terrorist groups and described by U.S. officials as one of the world’s major narco‑traffickers, with a large reward once offered for information leading to his arrest.

Sanctions and international pressure

  • The United States and other countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Maduro, his inner circle, and state‑owned companies, including Venezuela’s oil firm, seeking to push political change.
  • Maduro responded by negotiating with the opposition and foreign governments, trading political concessions for limited sanctions relief, such as licenses that allowed Chevron to resume pumping Venezuelan oil.

How it ended: capture and strikes

  • In late 2025 and early 2026, tensions escalated as the U.S. built up military forces in the Caribbean and labeled Maduro the head of a foreign terrorist organization.
  • In January 2026, U.S. forces carried out a large‑scale operation in Venezuela, with explosions reported in Caracas, and President Donald Trump announced that Maduro and his wife had been captured to stand trial in the United States on criminal charges.

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