Venezuela Marks 1st Month Anniversary of Maduro's Capture

Venezuela on Tuesday marked the first month since the United States’s unprecedented January 3 law enforcement operation in Caracas that resulted in the arrest of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The first-month anniversary of Maduro’s downfall comes amid the first steps of an ongoing three-phase program toward restoring democracy in Venezuela that Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined to Congress last week.

In the early morning hours of January 3, U.S. forces carried out Operation Absolute Resolve, capturing Maduro and Flores from their compound inside Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex. Since then, the Venezuelan socialist regime has been led by Maduro’s Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as “acting president” of Venezuela following Maduro’s capture.

At press time, Maduro and Flores are presently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, awaiting trial on multiple narco-terrorism charges. The left-wing propaganda network Telesur reported on Tuesday that the Venezuelan regime hosted a vigil in Caracas to demand the “liberation” of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.

Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, lamented on social media that he has spent a month without his father’s “advice, quick response, wisdom,” and claimed that the regime will “keep winning in the name of God, and you will be among us sooner than later.” Maduro Guerra was identified as one of several conspirators who benefited from his father’s drug trafficking schemes. The younger Maduro claimed in January that history would reveal the “traitors” who helped the United States capture his father.

According to the Venezuelan regime, “between 100 and 120” people were allegedly killed by U.S. forces during the operation — but it has failed to disclose any exact casualty numbers on the grounds that the remains of the deceased were “too damaged” to make an exact assessment. Additionally, 32 Cuban state security agents were killed during the operation — which confirmed decades of evidence that the communist Castro regime maintained a major military presence and influence in Venezuela. The remains of the 32 Cuban soldiers arrived in Havana in small boxes in mid-January, prompting widespread speculation on what exactly happened that left their bodies in such a state.

According to the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, Caracas has remained under a “normality imposed by pragmatism and fear” since Maduro’s capture. The newspaper noted that, although regime armored trucks continue to circulate, “command centers now respond to an unstable power triangle that breakfasts on CIA reports and dines on the uncertainty of a trial that is just beginning.”

“The incursion on January 3 showed that the ‘Bolivarian shield’ was made of paper. The Igla systems, the pride of Russian technical cooperation, were blinded by U.S. electronic warfare. The toll at Fuerte Tiuna was bloody but asymmetrical: 100 Venezuelan casualties and 32 members of the Cuban elite, the ‘Black Wasps,’ who fell defending the presidential bunker. On the US side, not a single fatality,” El Nacional reported.

Although the structure of the Venezuelan socialist regime — and its repressive apparatus — has remained largely intact in the following weeks, President Donald Trump has told reporters that Rodríguez is cooperating with the United States, with America effectively controlling Venezuelan oil exports. Last week, the Venezuelan National Assembly, an entity controlled entirety by socialists and led by Delcy’s brother Jorge Rodríguez, passed a bill introducing a series of sweeping reforms to the nation’s restrictive hydrocarbon laws, undoing some of the major socialist restrictions to the nation’s oil industry while granting access to private companies to the Venezuelan oil sector.

Despite Rodríguez’s recurring combative remarks towards the United States and U.S. government officials, the “acting president” appears to be collaborating with the Trump administration. Trump and Rodríguez spoke over the phone in mid-January and she met with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Ratcliffe in Caracas days later.

On Monday, Rodríguez and her brother met with Ambassador Laura Dogu, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Venezuela Affairs Unit (VAU), amid an ongoing process towards the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, which has remained shut down since 2019 after Maduro had Venezuela cut ties with the United States. Dogu explained on social media that she detailed Sec. Rubio’s three-phase roadmap towards restoring democracy in Venezuela to the Rodríguez siblings.

The February 2 encounter between Dogu and the Rodríguez siblings notably coincided with the 27th anniversary of February 2, 1999, the day late socialist Hugo Chávez was first sworn in as president. Venezuelan socialists mark February 2 as a pseudo-holiday to commemorate the start of the so-called “Bolivarian Revolution.”

Dogu introduced herself to the Venezuelan people in a video published by the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. The diplomat detailed that she is deeply honored to serve as the United State’s Chargé d’Affaires for Venezuela and that, after serving as ambassador to Honduras and Nicaragua, President Trump and Secretary Rubio have now tasked her to lead the American diplomatic mission in Caracas, describing it as a “historic moment for both countries.” Dogu also summarized Sec. Rubio’s plan.

“As Secretary Rubio said, we want a friendly, stable, prosperous, and democratic Venezuela. To achieve this, my team and I will work hand in hand with Venezuelans, representatives from a variety of sectors and perspectives,” Dogu said.

“We will execute a three-phase plan. First, the stabilization of the country and the restoration of security. Second, the recovery of the economy for the benefit of all Venezuelans. And third, the transition to a friendly, stable, prosperous, and democratic Venezuela,” she continued.

The U.S. Ambassador detailed that she and her team are implementing President Trump’s decisions, emphasizing that the reopening of airspace and the Department of Treasury’s license allowing U.S. companies to operate in Venezuela are key steps toward strengthening economic recovery.

“We will ensure that our progress is sustainable and, fundamentally, that it provides tangible benefits for both the American and Venezuelan people,” Dogu said.

The past month has also seen the slow release of hundreds of men and women that the Venezuelan socialists kept as political prisoners. At press time, the non-governmental organization Foro Penal has confirmed the release of 344 political prisoners between January 8 and February 1. Foro Penal detailed that, based on its statistics, 687 political prisoners remain in Venezuela as of February 02 — noting that the whereabouts of 51 are unknown by the organization, and 59 are foreign nationals.

On Friday, Delcy Rodríguez announced that she would pass a general amnesty bill to cover the “entire period of political violence from 1999 to the present.” The “acting president” also announced the closure of the Helicoide (“the Helix”), Venezuela’s largest and most infamous torture center, which will be transformed into a “social, sports, commercial, and cultural center.” The Helicoide, was originally conceived and built in the 1950s during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, was meant to serve as the world’s first drive-thru mall, but was never finished.

Despite Rodríguez’s announcement, the Helicoide still holds numerous political prisoners and socialist lawmakers have not discussed the announced amnesty bill project at press time.

Venezuelan outlets reported on Tuesday morning that Venezuelans are holding a peaceful protest inside the premises of the Central University of Venezuela to demand a “real, non-selective amnesty” and the immediate release of all remaining political prisoners.

Anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado , sharing footage of the peaceful protest, pointed out on social media that “30 days ago, this was unthinkable.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.