Nicolás Maduro , in full Nicolás Maduro Moros, (born Nov. 23, 1962, Caracas, Venez.), Politician and labour leader who became president of Venezuela in 2013. A bus driver who rose through the ranks of the transit workers’ union, he campaigned for Hugo Chávez’s release after Chávez led an unsuccessful coup attempt (1992). Maduro began serving in the National Assembly in 2000 and became its president in 2005. He became foreign minister in 2006 and vice president in 2012. Maduro took over the presidency when Chávez died in March 2013; he was formally elected in April. Under his increasingly authoritarian leadership, Venezuela became deeply (and sometimes violently) politically divided, leading to attempts to remove Maduro from office, both with the ballot and extralegally. In the process, the country’s economy collapsed, resulting in soaring inflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine. Despite the turmoil, Maduro remained in office, even when his election to a second term (2018) was challenged by Juan Guaidó, the head of the National Assembly, who declared himself the country’s acting president in January 2019. After a presidential election in July 2024, both Maduro and the opposition claimed victory, and the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner. Tensions increased even more within Venezuela, and by mid-2025 relations between Venezuela and the U.S. had become openly confrontational, with U.S. forces carrying out naval strikes against vessels near Venezuelan waters. On January 3, 2026, Maduro was captured and removed from Venezuela by U.S. forces to face U.S. charges on alleged narco-terrorism.