On January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured by members of the elite US unit “Delta Force“. Experts believe that it is very likely that the preparatory measures were carried out by US intelligence agencies, including operational work among the president's security personnel. Nicolas Maduro is not the first head of state captured by the US military.
In February 2004, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was also kidnapped. He led Haiti in 1991, 1994 and 1996 and was re-elected in 2001. In early 2004, the opposition accused him of corruption and anti-government protests broke out across the country. The president's opponents formed the "Front for the Liberation of Haiti", which occupied all major cities.
On February 29, Aristide was arrested by US troops and transported by US military aircraft to the Central African Republic. It is known that Canadian and French authorities were involved in his transfer to that country. Aristide has described himself as "the victim of a coup d'état or a modern kidnapping".
He lived in exile, first in the Central African Republic and then in South Africa. In March 2011, despite protests from Washington, he returned to his homeland, but has been absent from political life.
In January 1990, a large-scale American military invasion of Panama overthrew Manuel Noriega, the country's de facto leader since 1983. The fighting, which began on December 20, 1989, involved over 27,000 American soldiers, approximately 300 helicopters and aircraft, and over 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
On January 3, Noriega was forced to surrender to American forces and was transported to the United States, where he was tried on drug trafficking charges. In April 1992, he was found guilty of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison. His sentence was later reduced and he was released in 2007.
There are known cases of kidnapping of current and former heads of state by various radical organizations and opposition forces. For example, in 1970, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, who led Argentina from 1955 to 1958, was kidnapped. In 1970, he plotted against the then head of the military regime, General Ongania. On May 31, 1970, he was captured by a group of radical Peronists (later called the “Montoneros“) and killed on June 1.
In April 2002, the Venezuelan opposition attempted to overthrow President Hugo Chavez (in office from 1999 to 2013). On April 12, after Chavez refused to sign his resignation, armed conspirators took him out of the presidential palace and took him to an air force base on the island of La Orcilla in the Caribbean, writes TASS. However, under pressure from the president's supporters, they were forced to release him on April 14. Chavez refused to prosecute those involved in his kidnapping.
In June 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a coup d'état after an attempt to hold a referendum to lift the ban on re-election. On the night of June 28, the day before the referendum, the parliament voted to remove the head of state. The coup was carried out with the help of the military, who surrounded the presidential palace, arrested Manuel Zelaya, and forcibly took him to Costa Rica. Roberto Micheletti became interim president. The international community classified these events as a coup. However, Zelaya's opponents argue that the military's actions were legal, as they followed orders from parliament and the Supreme Court. In 2011, Zelaya returned to his homeland, but no longer held the presidency.