What Maduro’s Capture Means For Religious Freedom in Venezuela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUmJwproPXc

Matthew Peterson is Religion Unplugged’s podcast editor and audience development coordinator. He took part in this past summer’s European Journalism Institute held in Prague, an annual program co-sponsored by The Media Project.

On Jan. 3, in the middle of the night, U.S. Special Forces broke into the home of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and arrested him and his wife.U.S. military presence in Venezuela had been creeping up for months, with United States leaders focused on suppressing drug cartels.

But, when President Trump posted an image on his Truth Social account of Maduro (which may have been generated by AI) in a Nike sweatsuit and blindfold aboard the USS Iwo Jima, many Americans were left wondering, “What happens next?” and, just as crucially, “Can the U.S. government do that?” While human rights advocates from around the world cautiously celebrated the downfall of the authoritarian dictator, life for many Venezuelans has not changed radically. Maduro’s regime remains in power through his Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

Under Maduro, the Venezuelan government bribed certain churches with extra cash and remodeled church buildings in exchange for pastoral support for the government — that practice may outlive Maduro, too.

And for the churches that refused to bend their knees, there have been multiple cases of intense verbal harassment, leading many to consider Venezuelans as having a suboptimal form of religious freedom, despite a constitution that protects that liberty.

For this week’s podcast, I spoke with Knox Thames and Anna Lee Stangl. Knox worked in the U.S. State Department under both Presidents Obama and Trump as a Special Advisor for Religious Minorities. He is also the author of “Ending Persecution” and “International Religious Freedom Advocacy.” Anna Lee is the Head of Advocacy and Team Leader of Latin America at Christian Solidarity Worldwide USA.

Thames and Stangl talked about religious freedom before and after Maduro, the way Venezuelan politics has been shaped by the nations around it and Trump’s confusing justification for keeping Maduro’s number two in power amid concerns for Latin American religious liberty at large.