[41][57] At 24 years of age, Maduro resided in Havana with other militants of leftist organizations in South America who had moved to Cuba in 1986, attending a one-year course at the Escuela Nacional de Cuadros Julio Antonio Mella, a centre of political education directed by the Union of Young Communists.

[58] According to Carlos Peñaloza, Maduro was allegedly tasked by the Castro government to serve as a "mole" working for the Cuba's Dirección de Inteligencia to approach Hugo Chávez, who was experiencing a burgeoning military career.

[69] In September 2006, while attempting to travel back to Venezuela via Miami, Florida, Maduro was briefly detained by Homeland Security officers at the John F. Kennedy International Airport for around 90 minutes, after paying for three airline tickets in cash.

[87] Opposition leaders in Venezuela delivered a May 2016 petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) calling for a recall referendum, with the populace to vote on whether to remove Maduro from office.

"[108] During the later years of Maduro's presidency, pro-government police and military forces launched the "Liberation of the People Operation [es]", which they stated targeted street gangs and non-state paramilitary formations which they alleged had taken control of poor neighbourhoods.

"[68] However, following increased international sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis in 2019, the Maduro government abandoned socialist policies established by Chávez, such as price and currency controls, which resulted in the country seeing a rebound from economic decline.

[121][122] On 6 March 2014, marking the 1 year anniversary of Hugo Chavez's death, Maduro announced on live television that he was breaking diplomatic and commercial relations with Panama after the country's president Ricardo Martinelli expressed support for the demonstrators during the protests that began on 12 February and called on the OAS to investigate.

[131][132] Due to the raised oil prices resulting from the conflict, conversations have begun between Maduro and US officials, suggesting the possibility of lifting of US sanctions on Venezuela and improved relations between the two countries.

The minister shared that they had arrested yet another US military active-duty member, Wilber Joseph Castañeda, with evidence from his cell phone linking him to terrorist attacks during the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election.

[24] After the opposition won the 2015 parliamentary elections,[162] the lame duck National Assembly—consisting of pro-Maduro Bolivarian officials—filled the Supreme Tribunal of Justice with Maduro allies;[163] the New York Times reported that Venezuela was "moving closer to one-man rule".

[166] After election officials closely aligned with the government blocked an attempt to summon a recall referendum against Maduro, Venezuelan political analysts cited in The Guardian warned of authoritarianism and a dictatorship.

[167] The Supreme Tribunal took over the legislative powers of the National Assembly in March, provoking the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis; a Corrales opinion piece in the Washington Post asked, "What happens next for the dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro?

[170] Human Rights Watch described the process that had led to the National Assembly's being taken over, labeled Venezuela a dictatorship, and said the "Venezuelan government is tightening its stranglehold on the country's basic institutions of democracy at a terrifying speed.

"[174] The Economist Intelligence Unit stated that during Maduro's presidency, the country's democracy deteriorated further, with the 2017 report downgrading Venezuela from a hybrid regime to an authoritarian regime, the lowest category, with an index of 3.87 (the second lowest in Latin America, along with Cuba), reflecting "Venezuela's continued slide towards dictatorship" as the government has side-lined the opposition-dominated National Assembly, jailed or disenfranchised leading opposition politicians and violently suppressed opposition protests.

[178] Roger Noriega wrote in the Miami Herald that a "lawless regime" and "narcodictatorship" headed by Maduro, Tareck El Aissami and Diosdado Cabello had driven "Venezuela to the brink of collapse".

[187] The Canadian minister of foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland, stated that "Having seized power through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections held on May 20, 2018, the Maduro regime is now fully entrenched as a dictatorship.

[198] Tachira state's governor José Vielma Mora assured that Maduro was born in El Palotal sector of San Antonio del Táchira and that he had relatives that live in the towns of Capacho and Rubio.

In April 2016 during a cadena nacional, Maduro changed his birthplace narrative once more, saying that he was born in Los Chaguaramos, specifically in Valle Abajo, adding that he was baptized in the San Pedro church.

[203] Opposition deputies have assured that the birth certificate of Maduro must say that he is the son of a Colombian mother, which would represent proof that confirms that the president has double nationality and that he cannot hold any office under Article 41 of the constitution.

[205] On 28 October 2016, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice issued a ruling stating that according to incontrovertible evidence, it had absolute certainty that Maduro was born in Caracas, in the parish of La Candelaria, known then as the Libertador Department of the Federal District, on 23 November 1962.

The Supreme Court warned the deputies and the Venezuelans that "sowing doubts about the origins of the president" may "lead to the corresponding criminal, civil, administrative and, if applicable, disciplinary consequences" for "attack against the State".

[208] The reactions included the arrest of Antonio Ledezma in February 2015, placing travel restrictions on American tourists and holding military marches and public exercises "for the first time in Venezuela's democratic history".

[224] When meeting with Latin American leaders during the seventy-second session of the UN General Assembly, President Donald Trump discussed possible United States military intervention in Venezuela, to which they all denied the offer.

[226] According to Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, "a military action of the United States against Venezuela would be contrary to the movements of the Trump administration to retire troops from Syria or Afghanistan.

[240] On 27 September 2018, six states parties to the Rome Statute: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, referred the situation in Venezuela since 12 February 2014 to the ICC, requesting the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to initiate an investigation on crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the territory.

On 26 March 2020, the United States Department of Justice charged Maduro and other Venezuelan officials and some Colombian former FARC members for what William Barr described as "narco-terrorism": the shipping of cocaine to the US to wage a health war on US citizens.

The government-operated Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP), which provides food to impoverished Venezuelans, made contracts with Group Grand Limited, a company that Ortega said was "presumably owned by Nicolás Maduro" through front-men Rodolfo Reyes, Álvaro Uguedo Vargas and Alex Saab.

[242] In December 2018, videos and pictures were leaked showing a glamorous Christmas party that counted with an expensive feast, including French wine, taking place in the seat of the pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

[280] The Organization of American States Secretary General, Luis Almagro, supported the verdict and asked for the Venezuelan National Assembly to recognize the ruling of the Supreme Tribunal in exile.

[296] In March and April 2015, Maduro saw a small increase in approval after initiating a campaign of anti-US rhetoric following the sanctioning of seven officials accused by the United States of participating in human rights violations.