Inés San Martín | Crux Now
Jan 15, 2026
\A man becomes emotional as people in Madrid celebrate Jan. 3 in reaction to the news that the U.S. had captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro. (OSV News/Violeta Santos Moura)
As of Jan. 3, nearly 8 million Venezuelans forced to live outside their country were joined by Nicolás Maduro, the man whose policies and crimes led them to diaspora. The news of his seizure by U.S. military forces and that of his wife, Cilia Flores, to face drug-related charges in New York may be the biggest event in Latin America in decades.
Venezuela has spent the better part of the last decade in an informal state of collapse, with “elections” that settle almost nothing, armed actors and foreign patrons operating in the shadows; and a humanitarian emergency so vast it has reshaped an entire continent.
To some, the cautious response so far from Catholic leadership in Venezuela and Pope Leo XIV may come across as weak. But in reality, it reflects a hard-learned understanding that words are not cost-free in a country where power is enforced not through law, but through fear, surveillance, and unlawful imprisonment.
With that in mind, here are a few thoughts.
As of Jan. 3, nearly 8 million Venezuelans forced to live outside their country were joined by Nicolás Maduro, the man whose policies and crimes led them to diaspora. The news of his seizure by U.S. military forces and that of his wife, Cilia Flores, to face drug-related charges in New York may be the biggest event in Latin America in decades.
Venezuela has spent the better part of the last decade in an informal state of collapse, with “elections” that settle almost nothing, armed actors and foreign patrons operating in the shadows; and a humanitarian emergency so vast it has reshaped an entire continent.
To some, the cautious response so far from Catholic leadership in Venezuela and Pope Leo XIV may come across as weak. But in reality, it reflects a hard-learned understanding that words are not cost-free in a country where power is enforced not through law, but through fear, surveillance, and unlawful imprisonment.
With that in mind, here are a few thoughts.
