Maduro Captured: Venezuela’s Real Battle Begins

ANALYSIS by Susan Katz Keating

Long before the U.S. military strike that captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Venezuela was not simply an authoritarian regime awaiting a reckoning. It was a hijacked democracy; a country that began with elections but saw its institutions hollowed out and repurposed by leaders who used power and oil wealth to entrench themselves. Elections became rituals, checks and balances vanished, and corruption became the currency of survival.

That chapter seemingly is over, after the U.S. toppled the regime. Now the real battle for Venezuela begins.

Background

Venezuela’s oil-based economy generated immense resources for whoever controlled the state. The opportunity to divert oil revenues fueled endemic corruption, and fostered public disillusionment with democracy. This “resource curse” helped Hugo Chávez capture power in 1998 and later enabled Nicolás Maduro to tighten his grip on a state whose institutions were already degraded.

READ MORE about Venezuela: Guns, Drugs, and Oil: How Close is Venezuela to Boiling Over?

As corruption spread, the regime forged transactional relationships with armed and criminal groups. Chávez and Maduro provided economic and political support to Colombia’s FARC and ELN guerrillas – designated terrorist organizations by the United States and the European Union. They allowed Hezbollah-linked networks to operate within Venezuela, offering safe havens and logistical support. 

Inside the country, government-backed power centers filled the vacuum left by a weak state, intertwining political patronage with criminality.

This pattern echoes other resource-driven autocracies. In Libya, Muammar Gaddafi leveraged oil wealth to fund domestic patronage and foreign political movements, prioritizing influence over accountability – a strategy Venezuela’s leaders mirrored in their own way.

By late 2025, power had devolved from Caracas to a patchwork of security forces, militias, and criminal networks, each invested in preserving the corrupt status quo. The elite thrived, while ordinary citizens suffered.

Operation Absolute Resolve

The U.S. strike against Maduro was given the code name Operation Absolute Resolve. It was a precision, powerful blow to shortstop the corrupt regime. No Americans were harmed in the process, and only one aircraft took fire – but remained flyable.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested and spirited away by helicopter to a Navy vessel, the USS Iwo Jima. They arrived in New York on Saturday late afternoon, and are being held in detention. Their story is now one of criminal prosecution.

Venezuela’s future is far more complex. It now hinges on how American leaders can manage temporary control, and hand it over to a reborn country. The Americans will need to stabilize key institutions, disrupt entrenched criminal networks, and begin dismantling the oil-based corruption that sustained the regime. 

The operation’s immediate impact is undeniable. The long-term outcome, however, will depend entirely on whether the U.S. can translate this decisive strike into meaningful governance, and prevent the hijacked democracy from regrouping under a different set of actors.

Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.