María Corina Machado

Force in Play

Leading opposition movement; in hiding since 2024 election

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa walked free from prison on February 8, 2026, after nearly nine months behind bars. Hours later, heavily armed men in civilian clothes seized him from his Caracas home, forced him into unmarked vehicles, and the government now says he violated release conditions and has been placed under house arrest.

Updated 2 days ago

Force in Play

Met with Trump but received no endorsement for Venezuelan leadership

Congress hasn't declared war since 1942, though presidents have ordered 212 military strikes without formal declarations. On January 3, 2026, U.S. special forces raided Venezuela, captured President Nicolás Maduro in his residence, and flew him to New York to face narcoterrorism charges.

Updated 7 days ago

Force in Play

In Washington; Nobel platform diminished by Trump skepticism; addressed Munich Security Conference; facing potential prosecution if returns

Seven weeks after U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has consolidated interim power through military loyalty pledges, oil privatization, and prisoner releases. In an NBC interview on February 12, she pledged 'free and fair' elections but refused to set a timeline, conditioning them on Venezuela being 'free from sanctions'.

Updated 7 days ago

New Capabilities

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2025

The Nobel Assembly kicked off October 2025 by awarding the Medicine Prize to three scientists who discovered the immune system's off-switch—regulatory T cells controlled by the Foxp3 gene. Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell identified the gene in 2001 while studying scurfy mice that died from autoimmune storms. Shimon Sakaguchi had already discovered the cells themselves in 1995. Together, their work explained why our immune systems don't destroy us and opened the door to treatments for everything from diabetes to lupus.

Updated May 19

Force in Play

In hiding since July 2024 election

Delta Force dragged Nicolás Maduro from his bedroom at 2 AM on January 3, threw him on a helicopter, and flew him to the USS Iwo Jima bound for Manhattan. The Venezuelan president now faces narco-terrorism charges in the same courthouse that convicted El Chapo.

Updated May 19

Force in Play

Met with Trump at White House on January 15; presented Nobel Prize medal but received no endorsement for leadership

Delta Force operators captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas at 2 a.m. on January 3 as explosions rocked the capital and helicopters evacuated them to the USS Iwo Jima, bound for New York. By Saturday afternoon, Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn—the first American military capture of a sitting head of state since Manuel Noriega in 1989.

Updated May 19