Sawt Falasteen - Nicolas Maduro: From bus driver to iron-fisted leader

During months in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, who accused him of being a drug trafficker, the 63-year-old former bus driver deflected pressure by dancing to techno music at near-daily rallies, always broadcast live, as he chanted the mantra "No war, yes peace!" -- in English.

But for many Venezuelans, Maduro was no kindly pacifist.

Seven million compatriots emigrated on his watch amid allegations of arbitrary detentions, rigged trials, torture and censorship.

The South American country's economy collapsed, marked by four consecutive years of hyper-inflation and an 80-percent drop in GDP in a decade.

As he tightened his grip on power, Maduro relied increasingly on backing from a handful of international allies -- notably China, Cuba and Russia -- as well as the military, security and paramilitary forces.

More than 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and about 200 injured in a crackdown on the protests that followed his disputed election victory claim in July 2024.

The violence echoed previous deadly crackdowns on the opposition that he oversaw in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

- 'First combatant' -

Tall with a full mustache and slicked-back graying hair, Maduro first came to power in 2013 and claimed reelection twice: in 2018 and 2024 in elections widely denounced as fraudulent.

In January 2025, he was sworn in for a third term that would have taken him to 18 years in power -- longer than his revolutionary hero Hugo Chavez, who spent 14 years in the presidential palace.

Maduro served as a lawmaker, foreign minister and vice president before being chosen by Chavez as his successor three months before the socialist firebrand died of cancer in 2013.

The choice of Maduro, who lacks Chavez's rhetorical skills and charisma, raised eyebrows in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

He barely scraped through on his first election in 2013.

But he fended off crisis after crisis, including US sanctions and a steep drop in oil prices that robbed Venezuela of its economic mainstay.

In 2018, much of the international community recognized congress speaker Juan Guaido as interim president, but his parallel government soon imploded.

And then after elections in July 2024, the United States, European nations and several Latin American neighbors declared opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia the country's rightful leader.

Throughout, Maduro also counted on his wife Cilia Flores, a former prosecutor seven years his senior who he refers to as "First Combatant" and "Cilita."

Flores was also a lawmaker who after years in Congress rose to the presidency of the National Assembly (2006–2010) later to hold much power behind the scenes in Maduro's Venezuela.

Trump said Flores was seized by US special forces with her husband, and that they were being taken to New York to face federal charges after an early-morning assault on Caracas.

- Marxist and Christian -

In the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Maduro's image is plastered across buildings everywhere.

He has worked hard at building an image of himself as an earthy man of the people -- an avowed baseball fan and a lover of salsa, showing off his dance moves on state TV, always with his wife by his side.

Born in Caracas, Maduro is both a professed Marxist and Christian, and as a teenager played guitar in a rock band.

It has been claimed he deliberately misspeaks in English so as not to be seen as high-brow.

As president, Maduro weathered many threats imagined and real -- including a failed explosive-laden drone attack in 2018 that wounded several soldiers.

To deflect blame for Venezuela's political and economic woes, he kept up Chavez's anti-American conspiracy theories, repeatedly accusing the United States of plotting to unseat him.

While casting himself as the victim of an international plot, Maduro shuttered channels for political dissent, locking up dissidents and challengers with little regard for due process.

His government is under investigation for rights violations by the International Criminal Court.

Maduro has also shown himself to be adept at realpolitik, winning an easing of US sanctions and other concessions by agreeing with the opposition to hold democratic elections in 2024.

But he reneged on the conditions, and some of the sanctions were quickly snapped back.

Maduro has been a near omni-present feature in the lives of long-suffering Venezuelans, pumping his fist in regular television appearances while shouting anti-imperialist rhetoric.

He also appeared regularly on screen and in print as a cartoon character drawn in his image: a caped superhero named Super-Bigote (Super-Mustache) who is "at war with imperialism."

T.Khatib--SF-PST