Transcription
Before becoming the handpicked successor to communist dictator Hugo Chavez, the current president of Venezuela, Nicholas Madiro Moros, had a background that mixed workingclass roots, trade union activism, and a steady climb through Venezuela's socialist political system that ruined a nation.
Under Maduro's rule, Venezuela has descended from one of Latin America's most prosperous nations into a country defined by hunger, hyperinflation, and fear. Once thriving cities are plagued by blackouts, corruption, and vanishing resources. While millions have fled across borders in search of food, medicine, or safety, international tensions have surged as US and Allied forces intercept drugrunning vessels linked to Venezuelan and Colombian traffickers, many tied to networks within Maduro's own government. What began as a socialist promise has now evolved into a narcoate confrontation spilling beyond Venezuela's borders.
[music]
Who is Nicholas Madiro? What is his background? How did he rise to power? How does he retain power?
>> Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History.
Nicholas Maduro was born on November 23rd, 1962 in Karacas, Venezuela. His father, Nicholas Maduro Garcia, was a union leader. His mother, Teresa De Jesus Moros, was a homemaker. Nicholas had no formal education beyond high school, working many odd jobs until he became a bus driver for the Caracus Metro, which became a key part of his everyman image later in politics.
While driving buses, Maduro became involved in trade union activism, representing Caracus Metro workers. He joined leftist political movements, aligning with the anti-imperialist and socialist ideas in the 1980s and 1990s. He was active in the Bolivarian revolution from its initial stages, supporting Hugo Chavez even before Chavez's rise to power. Chavez saw enormous potential in Maduro, who like him worshiped communist leaders such as Fidel Castro and Sha.
During Chavez's reign, Maduro learned how to manipulate the masses and rig elections using inflated and outdated registries where dead citizens, duplicate entries, and migrants who left years ago remain listed and amazingly cast their votes. Those phantom voters can be activated by Venezuela's National Electoral Council or CE internal system to pad turnout or justify result gaps.
In 1998, Maduro was elected to the National Constituent Assembly, which rewrote Venezuela's constitution after Chavez's election. He served as a member of the National Assembly from 2000 to 2006 and later became speaker of the assembly from 2005 to 2006. Maduro wasn't known for original theory or charisma. His strength was loyalty and pragmatism. Within Chavez's inner circle, he was the safe pair of hands, disciplined, obedient, and trusted not to challenge the commandante. He built influence quietly through back channel diplomacy and alliances with the military and Cuba's advisers.
Maduro was then appointed as foreign minister from 2006 to 2013. In this role, Maduro became a loyal defender of Chavez's socialist and anti-US policies on the international stage. He developed strong ties with Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran, helping position Venezuela as a leader of the Bolivarian alliance.
In October 2012, as Chavez was dying of cancer, Maduro was appointed vice president. When Chavez died in March 2013, Maduro, his chosen successor, became interim president. Chavez had perfected the art of election fraud. After the death of Hugo Chavez, Maduro was declared winner of the presidential election held April 14th, 2013 to no one's surprise as the fix was in.
In progovernment areas, mobile registration stations are abundant. In opposition zones, they're scarce or suddenly offline. Millions of Venezuelans living overseas, mostly oppositionleaning, are unable to vote because the Venezuelan embassies block or delay registration. and the regime defines who gets to vote before a single ballot is even cast. The centralized data servers are used. Even though machines collect votes locally, they transmit to CE controlled servers in Karacus, allowing realtime monitoring and manual manipulation. Assisted voting is pressure that is applied especially in poor areas. Government workers or collectibos, armed civilian loyalist, stand near polling machines to help voters, an intimidation tactic to make sure they vote correctly. They also employed vote buying through social programs. Citizens using the Carnet deopatria card, a digital ID tied to food subsidies, are scanned before or after voting, signaling those from whom the regime expects loyalty. Midcount blackouts are common. Historically, CNE servers have paused reporting when opposition numbers surge, then resume hours later with reversed trends, such as during the 2017 regional races and the 2024 presidential vote. Even if local ties are accurate, the centralized system decides what gets reported. Reporting and transparency suppression is normal.
There is no open public audit trail in contested elections such as in May 2018 when Maduro was declared reelected for a 6-year term and then again in 2024. The CE refused to release detailed precinct level results. Independent tallies collected by the opposition and leaked sources claim his opponent Edmundo Gonzalez received a clear majority of more than 60% of the vote. But the official results were manipulated. The CNE did not publish full detailed results at the polling station level, refusing to allow independent verification. Outside international vote monitoring organizations such as the European Union, Organization of American States, and Carter Center are blocked from locations or restricted to pre-approved polling sites. Another glaring problem has been fabricated turnout figures. In 2017, Smartmatic, the voting machine vendor itself, declared the government had added over 1 million fake votes to turn out data. Without independent observers or verifiable data, official results are whatever the CE says they are. After seeing the blatant fraud, Smartmatic cut ties with Venezuela completely. Since then, Venezuela's CNE controls all election machinery with no independent or foreign oversight.
In every election, many major opposition parties and leaders were barred from participating, arrested, or just disappeared. Another tactic Maduro inherited from Chavez was quiet intimidation. Public employees were warned that their jobs and benefits depended on voting correctly. Armed gangs loyal to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela patrolled opposition neighborhoods and polling sites, often standing near voting machines during protest to make sure civilians knew they were being watched. Another tool of the corrupt communist or media blackouts. State-run channels broadcast wall-to-wall propaganda while opposition outlets face fines, blockages, or raids during campaign season. Corruption extends into the judiciary. The Supreme Court filled with PSUB loyalist routinely upholds the regime's victories and dismisses opposition challenges even in the face of clear evidence of fraud. Occasionally, the Cene allows a few safe opposition wins to preserve the illusion of pluralism. To cover their tracks, the government practices data eraser. Independent poll data and vote tally photos shared online are scrubbed by cyber crime units or blamed on foreign interference. Even when the opposition wins locally, the regime rewrites the scoreboard at the national level.
But Maduro has been accused of not just being a despotic communist leader stealing the nation's wealth for himself. He is like Chavez accused of being the leader of an narco state. Currently, the United States under President Donald Trump has been actively reducing the impact of drugs from Venezuela and Colombia by sinking the drug boats at sea. The Venezuelan government denies these allegations and claims many of these reports are US propaganda or part of regime change efforts. Maduro himself has dismissed accusations of being a narco kingpin, but there is a lot of evidence to support that assertion. For example, two of Maduro's nephews, Ephra and Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores Defratus, were arrested in Haiti in 2015 by the Drug Enforcement Administration for attempting to traffic 800 kg of cocaine into the US and they were later convicted in a US court. The investigation resulted in the US Department of Justice and US Treasury Department imposing sanctions on high level Venezuelan officials, including senior military and political figures in the Maduro government for alleged involvement in drug trafficking, moneyaundering, and aiding illicit trade routes. The term cartel de los soloulless, cartel of the sons, is widely cited in media and academic circles as a narcotics illicit mining network run by corrupt military officers in Venezuela, allegedly with links to the regime's top tier. They are also linked to illicit mineral precious metal extraction and crossber gold trade used as adjuncts to narcotics based moneyaundering and trafficking teams. The cartel de los solos is alleged to oversee fuel smuggling, gold mining and arms as part of the same ecosystem. Because of Venezuela's opaque institutions, banking system, black market operations, and secrecy around military, air, and port facilities, definitively tracing shipments, money flows, and the exact chain of command remain difficult to establish.
In August 2025, the US government offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Madira's arrest on drug trafficking charges. While many reports allege Madiro personally runs or directs the cartel Disos, evidence showing him giving orders or being at the operational level is thin and contested. Some experts argue the cartel is a loose set of networks, not a tightly controlled organization headed by him. In Maduro's world of total control of all aspects of life and economics, this is impossible to believe. Another allegation which may have merit is that Venezuela enjoys a safe haven status due to its weakened institutional oversight, economic collapse, and border chaos providing cover for traffickers using its territory for transit. This would only be possible due to political patronage with senior state actors protecting or enabling traffickers in exchange for loyalty, public funds or silence.
Beyond drug smuggling and corruption, the true measure of Maduro's regime is found in his human rights record. According to United Nations Human Rights Office and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, Venezuela under Maduro has faced credible reports of unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, and mass detention targeting political opponents and perceived critics. The advocacy group for Penal counts thousands of people detained for political reasons. They reported over 1,900 political prisoners in one stretch after the 2024 election. The Human Rights Watch published a major report saying, "Since the July 2024 election, Venezuelan authorities and progovernment armed groups, the collectibos, have committed killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, and torture of opposition figures and protesters. The IACR's report, serious human rights violations in connection with the elections of 2024, outlines a strategy of repression, pre-electual persecution of opposition, hindrance to free participation, instilling fear to maintain power. For example, paper backup tallies or polling station data are withheld or manipulated. Amnesty International documented torture and ill treatment of detainees, including children. Women in detention were reportedly abused and coerced. There are documented cases such as opposition politician Leapoldo Lopez who was jailed for years under controversial charges with international human rights bodies declaring his detention politically motivated.
Direct attribution of specific killings to MadiRo personally is difficult. Many abuses are documented by NOS's and UN bodies. However, proving who ordered what remains complex in authoritarian systems is difficult. Some of the arrest and detentions are framed by the regime as terrorism, conspiracy, public disorder, etc., which complicates the narrative of purely political persecution. The regime claims these are legitimate prosecutions. A human rights report from Human Rights Watch states that over 2,000 people were detained in connection with protest and opposition activity following the disputed July 2024 presidential election. The detainees frequently face delayed hearings, limited access to legal counsel, alleged torture, and prison conditions that violate international norms. The NGO Foro Panal reports that by early January 2025, approximately 1,697 political prisoners were documented in Venezuela after the election related crackdown. In retaliation, the US Treasury sanctioned multiple Venezuelan security intelligence officials for their roles in repression and arbitrary detention of democratic actors.
Another allegation leveled against Maduro, which he denies, claims that his regime ordered the release of violent offenders and mentally unstable inmates from Venezuelan prisons and asylums. US officials report that Vinnie later appeared among migrant groups crossing into the United States when Biden opened the border, creating new security and law enforcement challenges. Investigative reports show that criminal gangs from Venezuela, such as Trende Aaragua, have links to prison networks and have been associated with migration flows. They are also part of the expanded human and drug trafficking network that was allowed to flourish under the Biden administration, which is now being addressed.
Venezuela once stood among the world's leading oil producers, self-sufficient and thriving with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Today it sits beside Haiti as one of the region's poorest nations, stripped of its wealth, democracy, and future. Maduro and Chavez before him enrich themselves while generations of Venezuelans were left to starve, flee, or disappear. The question now isn't how Venezuela fell, but whether it can ever recover. The future of Venezuela is uncertain. Its people have lost their livelihoods, their freedoms, and in many cases, their lives. What was once a prosperous and self-sufficient nation now struggles to survive under the weight of corruption and poverty with little hope of regaining what has been lost.
Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the everinccreasing cost of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page. Please check out our merchandise store and thanks for watching.