The successful extraction and arrest of the United States’ federally, and criminally indicted Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, six months after the United States designated Cartel de los Soles, as Specially Designated Global Terrorist, naming Nicolas Maduro and high-ranking members of his regime in providing “material support to foreign terrorist organizations threatening the peace and security of the United States.” The designation named Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel as foreign terrorist groups. Colombian narco-terrorist groups were mentioned, but there was no mention of Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, which found a haven in Venezuela, following Hugo Chavez’s 2001 visit to Iran.
Maduro was first sanctioned by the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under Executive Order 13692, freezing his U.S.-held assets and “barring Americans from transacting with him.”
On March 26, 2020, Maduro was indicted for narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, corruption, and other crimes by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York. His latest indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on the morning of Jan. 3, 2026. It includes his wife, son, and ministers of the Interior and Justice in his illegal government, who, as the indictment states, together, have, “for decades, partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world, and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region, to distribute tons of cocaine to the United States.”
These indictments, together with their designation as terrorists, provided the legal grounds for the Trump administration’s nabbing Maduro and his wife early on Jan. 4, 2026.
So why now?
According to State Secretary Marco Rubio, this was the time to stop Venezuela’s activities that have been facilitating drug trafficking from Colombia and Mexico to the U.S., and serving as a hub for U.S. adversarial groups, including Iran and Hizballah, which, recently, together with Hamas, increased their presence in Venezuela. In addition to harboring and partnering with international narco-terrorist groups, Maduro has been accommodating and collaborating with the Communist regimes in Cuba and China, with Russia, and the autocratic Mullahs’ regime in Tehran.
According to reports, in addition to capturing Maduro, the US operation in Venezuela also destroyed a plant used to assemble Iranian “Mohajer-series UAVs (Mohajer-6 and Mohajer 2, combat UAVs with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance capabilities, capable of launching Iranian-designed Qaem air-to-ground guided bombs”, which are produced by Iranian firm Qods Aviation Industries,” and which have been sanctioned by US Department of the Treasury on Dec. 30, 2025.
So it is not surprising that the Iranian Foreign Ministry protested the U.S. “blatant violation of the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and called on the U.N. Security Council to immediately halt the United States’ unlawful aggression against Venezuela.
Not to be left behind, Iran’s proxy in Venezuela, Hezbollah, also condemned the U.S. action against Maduro as “terrorist aggression” and “American thuggery against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,“ and declared “full solidarity with Venezuela — its people, presidency, and government — in confronting this American aggression and arrogance.” Would Hezbollah’s “solidarity” with the Maduro regime translate into action?
A similarly worded protest was released by The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the Party behind Zoran Mamdani, New York City’s new Shiite “socialist democrat” mayor, who refrained from criticizing the Iranian regime's escalating crackdown on protesters who oppose economic hardship and political repression.
Like DSA, Mamdani also denounced Maduro’s arrest. Instead of thanking President Trump for stopping Maduro from transporting dangerous drugs that killed at least 13,500 New Yorkers in the past three years alone, and addicted tens of thousands more, Mamdani, who has no experience or role in US foreign policy, echoed the Iranian and the DSA condemnation declaring that "Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law…a grave breach of regional and international peace and security.” The self-aggrandizing anti-American mayor stated that he and his “administration will continue to monitor the situation and issue relevant guidance.” He boasted he called President Trump to “register his opposition.” He can rest assured it was registered.
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