On January 3, 2026, Nicolas Maduro, the-then President of Venezuela since 2013, was captured during a U.S. military operation in Caracas. He was transported to the United States and taken into custody in New York City. Maduro made his initial court appearance in a U.S. court in New York on January 5, 2026, to face narco-terrorism and drug charges.
What the U.S. effected in Venezuela can be termed, Aircraft-Carrier Diplomacy. Henry Kissinger, while he was U.S. Secretary of State, said: "An aircraft carrier is 100,000 tons of diplomacy."
From the 1800s through most of the 20th century, Western nations, particularly the United Kingdom, the U.S., France and Germany, used their superior military capabilities, especially their navies, to intimidate less powerful nations into effecting their directives. The presence of warships off a country's coast was sufficient in itself to have a significant effect, such that the actual use of force was rarely required.
Venezuela holds the world's largest proven oil reserves. Hugo Chavez was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013; he made Maduro his successor. They both failed to maintain adequately Venezuela's oil infrastructure, and they drove the country to abject poverty.
According to the UN International Organization for Migration, since 2014, nearly 8 million Venezuelans or 20% of the population, have left the country, unable to afford food or seeking better opportunities abroad.
By 2017, almost 75% of the population had lost an average of over 19 lbs (over 8 kg) through hunger, and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs.
In 2019, The UN estimated that 25% of Venezuelans needed some form of humanitarian assistance.
By 2021, 95% of the population was living in poverty based on income, out of which 77% lived under extreme poverty, the highest figure ever recorded in Venezuela, according to the national Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI).
Maduro also made peaceful political change impossible.
In 2023, Maria Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 awardee, won the opposition primary to become the unity candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The Maduro regime subsequently barred her from running in the election. She named Corina Yoris as a replacement candidate, who was later replaced by Edmundo Gonzalez, who won the July 2024 election in a landslide, while the government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner.
The election was described as fraudulent by international observers, who also found statistical improbabilities in the election results. In the aftermath, human rights groups further documented arbitrary arrests and violent repression of protesters.
The U.S., the EU, and several Latin American governments, condemned the election as fraudulent and declined to recognize the CNE’s declaration of Maduro’s "victory".
In August 2025, the United States began a military buildup near Venezuela, deploying warships and military personnel, with the stated goal of combating drug trafficking.
In December 2025, this escalated to include seizures of oil tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, imposing a naval quarantine on sanctioned vessels transporting oil to or from Venezuela, announcing plans to designate the Venezuelan government a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and striking a remote northern port reportedly used by Tren de Aragua for smuggling.
President Trump stated that Venezuela's oil reserves had been stolen from the United States.
The Venezuelan oil reserves, oil infrastructure and oil industry were developed by U.S. companies. On January 1, 1976, during the presidency of Carlos Andres Perez, Venezuela nationalized its oil industry without paying adequate compensation.
The incompetent Chavez and Maduro ran the oil industry to the ground, with their mismanagement of the economy, and the socialist and hyper-populist nature of their government's policies, and the use of these to maintain political power.
When Chavez took power in 1999, Venezuela produced 3 million barrels of oil per day. A decade later daily production had dropped to about 2 million barrels. It has now fallen below 1 million.
Venezuela currently has 303 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, the largest proven oil reserves in the world, which President Donald Trump said the U.S. now controls.
Oil prices are trading at approximately $57/barrel, making Venezuela's total reserves worth $17.3 Trillion.
Thus in the 12 hour-operation to capture Maduro, the US gained control of oil reserves worth more than the entire GDP of all countries in the world, except the U.S. and China.
Chavez and Maduro will go down in history as taking a nation with enormous oil wealth and leaving it in ruins. The Maduro regime will not be missed.
Dr. Sheyin-Stevens is a Registered Patent Attorney based in Florida, USA. He earned his Doctorate in Law from the University of Miami.