Following are some key details about Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan President who United States President Donald Trump mentioned had been captured by US forces on Saturday, January 3.
Trump, whose authorities has accused Maduro of working drug cartels and different crimes, had been pressuring the strongman to depart workplace for months.
– Maduro was born right into a working-class household on November 23, 1962, son of a commerce union chief. He labored as a bus driver throughout the time military officer Hugo Chavez led a failed coup try in 1992.
– He campaigned for Chavez’s launch from jail and have become a fervent supporter of his leftist agenda. He gained a seat within the legislature following Chavez’s 1998 election.
– He rose to turn out to be president of the Nationwide Meeting after which overseas minister, travelling the globe to construct worldwide alliances by way of oil-financed help applications.
– Chavez named him as his hand-picked successor and Maduro was narrowly elected president in 2013 following Chavez’s dying.
– His administration oversaw a spectacular financial collapse characterised by hyperinflation and continual shortages. His rule grew to become greatest identified for allegedly rigged elections, meals shortages and rights abuses, together with harsh crackdowns on protests in 2014 and 2017. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans emigrated overseas.
– His authorities was topic to aggressive sanctions by the US and different powers. In 2020 Washington indicted him on corruption and different costs. Maduro rejected the accusations.
– He was sworn in for a third time period in January 2025 following a 2024 election that was broadly condemned by worldwide observers and the opposition as fraudulent. 1000’s of people that protested the federal government’s declaration of victory have been jailed.
– A United Nations Reality-Discovering Mission discovered final month that the nation’s Bolivarian Nationwide Guard (GNB) dedicated critical human rights violations and crimes in opposition to humanity over greater than a decade in focusing on political opponents, usually with impunity.
– His authorities’s repressive measures have been highlighted by the award of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to opposition chief Maria Corina Machado. – Rappler.com
