In the space of a few violent hours, Venezuela\u2019s long\u2011time strongman went from<\/p>\n
untouchable ruler to high\u2011value prisoner in American hands.<\/p>\n
The charges are sweeping and brutal: narco\u2011terrorism, cocaine trafficking, machine guns,<\/p>\n
and a web of cartels stretching from Caracas to Mexico.<\/p>\n
For years, US officials painted Maduro as a kingpin hiding behind a presidential sash.<\/p>\n
Now they promise he will stand in a New York courtroom and finally hear a verdict he cannot rig.<\/p>\n
Inside Venezuela, the power vacuum is immediate and dangerous.<\/p>\n
Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez demands proof of life, allies cry \u201ccoup,\u201d<\/p>\n
and ordinary citizens whisper the name of Mar\u00eda Corina Machado as a possible new beginning.<\/p>\n
Abroad, allies urge calm while Trump hails a \u201cbrilliant operation.\u201d Between jubilation and fury,<\/p>\n
one question hangs over the hemisphere: did the fall of a tyrant just ignite something even worse?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the space of a few violent hours, Venezuela\u2019s long\u2011time strongman went from untouchable ruler to high\u2011value prisoner in American hands. The charges are sweeping and brutal: narco\u2011terrorism, cocaine trafficking, machine guns, and a web of cartels stretching from Caracas to Mexico. For years, US officials painted Maduro as a kingpin hiding behind a presidential…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}