Venezuela after Maduro was supposed to look like freedom. Instead, it looks a lot like before.
On January 3, 2026, US forces launched Operation Absolute Resolve, bombing infrastructure across northern Venezuela and capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at their compound in Caracas. The operation lasted just 2 hours and 28 minutes — one of the shortest military interventions in history. Maduro was flown to New York aboard the USS Iwo Jima and indicted on charges of narcoterrorism, drug trafficking and weapons offenses. He pleaded not guilty on January 5.
Four months later, Venezuela remains dangerously unstable. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president the same day he was captured — and Trump, in a move that shocked the opposition, publicly backed her, saying she appeared “willing to do what we think is necessary.” Rodriguez, described by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as “one of the main architects of repression,” remains in charge of the country to this day.
Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 for her decade-long fight for Venezuelan democracy and whose opposition is believed to have won nearly 70% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, has been sidelined entirely. Trump dismissed her publicly, saying she lacks “the support or respect” needed to lead. She remains outside Venezuela, planning her return, and recently published a new book titled “The Freedom Manifesto.”
The man the US and most of the world recognizes as Venezuela’s rightfully elected president, Edmundo Gonzalez, also remains in exile. Trump has not endorsed him.
Meanwhile, US oil companies are moving back into Venezuela, with Trump declaring Washington will “run” the country until a proper transition takes place. Critics warn the situation echoes past US interventions in Iraq and Libya — tactical success with no “day after” plan.
A poll by The Economist in January found that 43% of Venezuelans support Machado as their leader, while only 13% back Rodriguez. Yet it is Rodriguez who governs, and Machado who waits.