With Maduro captured, restoring democracy is urgent to dismantle the dictatorship in Venezuela.
By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 04/01/2026
Share:
The United States, under President Donald Trump—in an extraordinary operation that reaffirms its global democratic, military, and technological leadership—has captured and brought to justice Nicolás Maduro, head of the cartel that usurps the sovereignty of Venezuela, but the Castro-Chavista dictatorship/narco-state continues to hold power.
The arrest and extradition of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores to face justice, accused of “narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States,” has been carried out, but it is undoubtedly only the first step in ending the aggression against the United States and democracies by organized crime, which seized political power in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia as 21st-century socialist dictatorships and installed quasi-dictatorial governments in Brazil with Lula, Mexico with López Obrador/Sheinbaum, Colombia with Petro, Chile with Boric, and Uruguay with Orsi.
The indictment against Maduro also implicates Diosdado Cabello, former minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, Maduro's son Nicolás Maduro, and Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero, better known as "El Niño Guerrero," the alleged leader of the Venezuelan mega-gang "Tren de Aragua." Although there are no formal charges in court, it is a matter of public record that the entire power structure—ministers, judges, prosecutors, electoral authorities, heads of state institutions, those in charge of repression, military commanders, the foreign service, and the entire hierarchy of the usurped Venezuela—is the dictatorship/narco-state that remains in control of the country, subservient to extra-hemispheric dictatorships such as China, Russia, and Iran.
Under the guise of a “transition,” what Castro-Chavismo actually does is engage in tactical, partial retreats, always limited by the pressures imposed by reality: it relinquishes the government but not the power, it loses the dictator but not the dictatorship, it concedes ground but maintains the system, and in this way, it endures. The examples of Nicaragua in 1990 and Bolivia in 2019 are dramatic proof that, under the guise of a transition, the dictatorship and organized crime maintained their system, enjoyed impunity, and preserved their apparatus, only to regain absolute control of power sooner rather than later.
To dismantle a dictatorship/narco-state, a transition to democracy is not enough; what is urgently needed is the "restoration of democracy." The difference lies between gradualism and shock therapy, in the timing and the level of control. Change cannot be gradual; it must be swift and decisive.
The restoration of democracy consists of immediately, without delay and without pretexts, putting into effect the “essential elements of democracy” by carrying out at least three fundamental actions: 1, ending the legal system of the dictatorship/narco-state; 2, not allowing impunity by immediately prosecuting the usurpers of power for human rights violations, narco-terrorism and corruption at the very least; 3, outlawing the political instruments of the crime that held power.
If we accept the goal of restoring democracy instead of transitioning to democracy while coexisting with a dictatorship/narco-state, the question is who will do it. Once the “what” is defined, the question to answer is “with whom,” and the answer in Venezuela is provided by the results of the July 28, 2024 elections, which proved the complete usurpation of power by Nicolás Maduro and his criminal group on January 10, 2025.
Doubts about President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, who was supposed to be sworn in as President of Venezuela on January 10, 2025, and who is in reality the forced replacement (better than nothing) for the unjustly ousted and true leader María Corina Machado, cannot justify—once Maduro is captured—maintaining power in the hands of the dictatorship/narco-state and continuing to disregard the popular and sovereign mandate of the Venezuelan people, nor considering the vice-dictator Delcy Rodríguez as an option. González must assume the presidency and appoint Machado as Vice President to lead the government, and there is no other alternative for the United States and the democratic world.
The incredible operation by the United States, driven by the determination of President Trump and his administration to bring Maduro to justice, cannot serve to give vitality and legitimacy to the dictatorial system of 21st-century socialism led by Cuba by "managing a transition" while keeping crime in power.
It is the obligation of Gonzales Urrutia/Machado to form a government, take possession and control of the situation, and carry out the “restoration of democracy.” If they choose to settle for a transition, they will be condemning themselves to coexist with crime, to be complicit in impunity, and, worse still, to betray the mandate of the Venezuelan people who voted for them to remove the dictatorship and regain their freedom.
*Lawyer and political scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy
«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».