On the night of Jan. 3, 2026, around 2:00 a.m., the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores from the Fuerte Tiuna military complex in Caracas, Venezuela, and brought them to the U.S. for trial in New York on charges of drug dealing. The question is this: Is that the full story?
In today’s time, many of us simply rely on the media and stereotypes for our information. The truth is, we never fully understand a situation unless we experience or hear it from a perspective that was shaped by an incident.
Upper School Spanish teacher Carolina Croes has raised awareness about her home country, Venezuela, in recent years. “The people you see protesting against this are not Venezuelans,” she said. “If you see the Venezuelan videos, they interview the people protesting against Maduro, and they say, ‘What part of Venezuela are you from?’” To her and many she knows, Nicolás Maduro’s arrest was a celebration amid the Venezuelan’s protests and 27 years of this controlling and threatening regime.
The last free election in Venezuela was in 1999, when Hugo Chavez became president. He changed the constitution and appointed more judges to the Supreme Court to support his actions, which gave him more control. Originally, Chavez wanted to gain control with the help of the military, but they refused; therefore, this plan failed. So he turned to the Cubans, who controlled the population. They suffered no consequences because they weren’t Venezuelan; therefore, their family wouldn’t suffer the consequences of all and any actions they were committing. What was disguised as the end of dictatorship turned out to be the beginning of fear.
Chávez died of cancer in 2011, and without an official election, Maduro took over and became the new Venezuelan leader. With Maduro in charge, everything went downhill. Venezuela became economically unstable. Amid hyperinflation, protests leading to jail time, thousands of fatalities, and what seemed to be a cycle of never-ending terror and suffering, millions of Venezuelans evacuated the country and escaped to the Southern end of South America or here to America.
The U.S. wanted Maduro because they alleged he sent part of his gangs, called the Tren de Aragua, to the U.S., and he and his wife manage a major drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles. Venezuela’s oil production and organization were destroyed by Chavez during his time as president. Chávez fired 60,000 employees and replaced them with the military after a rebellion, which caused the oil industry to crash. But when Maduro rose to power, the only way to stay in power was through income. Now, where did he get this income from? From drugs. Long story short, Venezuela was a stable democracy that dramatically switched to a dictatorship that tortured its own people.
When asked what exactly the citizens went through for the past 15 years living in this regime, Mrs. Croes gave us an insight into what her family has been experiencing: “You prepare for the government, as you prepare for a hurricane,” she said. “They will cut your electricity to areas of the country that protest against them. The government provoked incredible food shortages. People were eating from the trash and starving. And they cut out your water.”
Now the question everyone has is this: Should we celebrate Maduro’s capture, and was what President Trump did right? The number one criticism that has been raised about the U.S. action, even by people who oppose Maduro, is that the U.S. wants Venezuela’s oil. Before 1975, U.S. companies were extracting Venezuela’s oil, which was when Venezuela was an affluent country, still able to tax its resources. However, when Chavez was in control, he fired all the oil executives, effectively making the industry completely state-controlled. Chávez sold the oil to China, Iran, Russia, and on the black market, sending all revenues to the government. “Who cares if Trump wants our oil?” Mrs. Croes said. “He’s very welcome to take our oil in exchange for our freedom because we didn’t have our oil. Chávez, Maduro, Cuba, and China had our oil.”
Secondly, Trump left the same people in charge, which is a true statement. “Delcy Rodriguez was Maduro’s VP and is as evil as they get,” Ms. Croes stated. “She managed the SEBIN, who controlled and installed the torture centers. Marco Rubio knows well who she is. He has stated many times there is a plan. I trust the plan.”
For international legality, according to critics, Trump violated the Venezuelan law by kidnapping Maduro; Mrs. Croes shared her opinion on this. “A state loses its legal legitimacy when it systematically violates basic human freedom,” she said. “International law recognizes core rights that no state may suspend, even in emergencies: Freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, freedom from arbitrary execution, and legal personhood. Where were these people when we were losing all of this?”
When I asked those who have family from Venezuela, and are Venezuelan themselves, they responded with two answers. Freshman Claudia Ripepi shared her feelings. “I was happy at first; that was my first reaction,” she said, “but then nervous because of what the US has done to countries with that. I was happy that they took them because having the U.S. in power is better than having a dictator in power.”
Mrs. Croes was similarly excited. “I learned, and then I rushed screaming,” Mrs. Croes said, “He’s gone, he’s gone! We were all crying. We all got together, gathered with other Venezuelans, and brought champagne. I came here, and I realized that Chavez was a dictator. So, I kept a bottle of champagne in my fridge from when Chavez fell. And then Chavez died, and we couldn’t open, and everything went from bad to worse. So yes, we were elated.”
While both Claudia and Mrs. Croes reacted in celebration, like all things, it’s not going to be a happy ending with just a snap. The Venezuelans are joyous and incredibly grateful, except for the ones stuck inside Venezuela, unable to share their opinions. “The ones inside the country are still scared,” Mrs. Croes shared.
If their leader was already captured, then why would they be scared? Many people were associated with and have ties of loyalty to Maduro, which puts their family in danger. The second reason is that people are trapped in prison chambers. “Venezuelans in Venezuela are super scared,” Mrs. Croes said, “because there are still people in jail. There are still people being tortured. There are still people being taken. They don’t go out to celebrate. They don’t post anything on social media. People who post on social media will be taken from their houses in the middle of the night.” Although their leader is no longer present in their country, all citizens are confined within it.
Time will tell how the US intervention will truly affect Venezuela. But for now, coming from one Venezuelan perspective: “Every Venezuelan outside and the ones inside Venezuela is elated,” Mrs. Croes said. “We are incredibly grateful to President Trump for this. We all see this as the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
