In a historic coincidence, the U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro came on January 3 — 36 years to the day that deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega decided to surrender weeks after a U.S. strike force overthrew him on charges of widespread drug trafficking.
Early signs are now that the former Venezuelan president — already indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2020 on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons possession — will soon face trial on American soil.
Maduro’s situation is almost identical to that of Noriega in 1990.
The Panamanian was transferred to a Miami jail and finally tried in September 1991 on charges of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.
Five months later, he was convicted on eight of the ten charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The near-18-month delay between Noriega’s capture and the start of his trial was the result of legal questions ranging from whether he could be tried as a prisoner of war to the admissibility of evidence and witnesses, and just who would be his defense counsel and how he would pay for the legal defense.
There are sure to be the same questions raised about Maduro.
The post-Maduro political situation in Venezuela will almost certainly not be as clear-cut as that following Noriega’s overthrow on Panama.
In May of 1989, Noriega annulled a presidential election won by opposition leader Guillermo Endara, who was then attacked and severely beaten by the strongman’s paramilitary squad.
In 2024, Maduro declared himself the winner in an election that outside observers unanimously concluded was won easily by opposition candidate and former diplomat Edmondo Gonzalez — who ran only after Maduro’s best-known opponent Maria Machado was barred by the government from becoming a candidate.
Gonzalez has gone into exile and is not considered a factor in post-Maduro Venezuela.
For now, Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, reportedly in Russia at the time of the president’s capture, is considered the acting head of government.
Whether Machado, who has been in hiding for over a year and went under cover to and from Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize last year, will now resurface to demand new elections is uncertain for now.
Manuel Noriega spent his remaining years convicted of murder in absentia in Panama, tried and convicted of money laundering in France, and finally extradited to Panama in 2011. He died in 2017 at age 83.
Whether Nicola Maduro will spend the rest of his life in court and in prison remains to be seen.
For now, the best post-mortem on the his overthrow and that of Noriega 36 years before is the admonition of Mark Twain: "History doesn’t repeat itself, but often it rhymes."
Noriega was later indicted in absentia in Panama for numerous crimes and convicted of murder in 1995.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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