MOSCOW, FACTBOX. /TASS/. On January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured by fighters of the elite Delta force unit of the US army. According to experts, it is highly likely that preparatory measures were carried out by the American special services, including operational work among the personnel of the presidential security agencies. Maduro is not the first head of a sovereign state to be captured by the US military.

In 2004, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deported from the country. He led Haiti in 1991, 1994-1996 and was again elected head of state in 2001. In early 2004, the opposition accused him of corruption, and anti-government protests began. Opponents of the president formed the Front for the Liberation of Haiti, which occupied all major cities. On February 29, Aristide was detained by US military and taken to the Central African Republic on an American military plane. Canada and France were involved in his transfer. Aristide described himself as "a victim of a coup d'etat or a modern-day abduction." He was in exile first in the Central African Republic, then in South Africa. In March 2011, despite Washington's protests, he returned to his homeland, but did not participate in political life.

In 1990, as a result of a large-scale invasion of US troops in Panama, Manuel Noriega, who had been the de facto head of the country since 1983, was overthrown. More than 27,000 American troops, approximately 300 helicopters and airplanes, more than 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers participated in the fighting that began on December 20, 1989. On January 3, Noriega was forced to surrender to the American military and was taken to the United States, where he stood trial on drug trafficking charges. In April 1992, the court found him guilty of having links with the drug mafia and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. Later his sentence was reduced, and he was released in 2007.

Besides, there were cases of abductions of current and former heads of state by various radical organizations and opposition forces. In 1970, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, who led Argentina in 1955-1958, was abducted. In 1970, he was plotting against the then head of the military regime General Ongania. Aramburu was captured by a group of radical Peronists (later called the Montoneros group) on May 31 and killed on June 1.

In 2002, opposition in Venezuela attempted to oust 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 brought to the air force base on the island of La Orchila in the Caribbean. However, under pressure from the president's supporters, they were forced to release him on April 14. Chavez did not prosecute the abductors.

In 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power in a coup because of an attempt to hold a referendum on lifting a ban on re-election. On the night of June 28, on the eve of the referendum, Parliament decided to remove the head of state. The coup was carried out with the help of the military, who surrounded the presidential palace, arrested Zelaya and took him to Costa Rica. Roberto Micheletti became interim president. The international community described the events as a coup. However, Zelaya's opponents argued that the military's actions were legitimate, as they were following orders from Parliament and the Supreme Court. In 2011, Zelaya returned to his homeland, but no longer held the presidential post.