Nicolás Maduro Moros is a Venezuelan politician who served as the president of Venezuela from 2013 until his ouster in late 2025.
Born on November 23, 1962, in Caracas, Venezuela, to Nicolás Maduro García, a trade union leader, and Teresa de Jesús Moros, who was born in Colombia, Maduro was raised in a working-class Catholic family in the city’s southern neighborhoods.
He began his professional life as a bus driver for the Caracas Metro system while becoming involved in labor unions, which laid the groundwork for his entry into politics as a staunch supporter of Hugo Chávez’s socialist movement.
Maduro’s tenure as president was characterized by authoritarian governance, allegations of election rigging, and close alliances with countries like Russia, China, and Iran.
Siblings
Nicolás, the only male among four siblings, grew up with three sisters named María Teresa, Josefina, and Anita in a modest two-bedroom apartment in southern Caracas, where their father’s role as a local trade union leader influenced the family’s working-class environment.
His sisters have maintained relatively low profiles compared to Maduro’s public life.
Career
Maduro’s political career began in the 1980s as a union activist and bus driver for Caracas Metro, where he campaigned for the release of Hugo Chávez after the latter’s 1992 coup attempt, eventually becoming a founding member of Chávez’s Fifth Republic Movement.
He entered formal politics in 1998 when elected to Venezuela’s Chamber of Deputies, later serving in the National Assembly from 2000 to 2006, where he rose to become its president.
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Appointed as foreign minister by Chávez in 2006, Maduro held the position until 2012, during which he strengthened ties with leftist governments in Latin America and non-Western powers, while also briefly serving as vice president from 2012 to 2013.
Upon Chávez’s death in 2013, Maduro succeeded him as president after a narrow election victory, implementing policies that deepened state control over the economy but led to hyperinflation, shortages, and international isolation.
His re-elections in 2018 and 2024 were widely condemned as fraudulent, prompting opposition challenges and U.S. recognition of Juan Guaidó as interim president in 2019, though Maduro maintained power through military loyalty and suppression of dissent until his removal in 2025.
Arrest
Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in a controversial operation in late 2025, leading to his extradition and arraignment in a New York federal court on January 5, 2026, where he pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
The charges, originally filed in March 2020 by the U.S. Department of Justice, accused Maduro of leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a drug trafficking network allegedly involving Venezuelan military officials and providing logistical support to Colombian guerrillas in exchange for cocaine shipments to the United States.
During his court appearance, Maduro defiantly claimed he was “kidnapped” by U.S. authorities and asserted his status as Venezuela’s legitimate president, while his wife, Cilia Flores, also pleaded not guilty to related cocaine importation and weapons offenses.
The case has raised legal and diplomatic questions, including potential further U.S. actions under President Donald Trump, amid ongoing debates over the evidence and implications for international relations.
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