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.

Venezuela’s