Succession from Usurpation: Venezuela’s Constitutional Transition After January 3
' Succeeding a usurper does not begin a transition. It inherits the constitutional problem . ' On January 3, 2026, United States forces captured Nicolás Maduro [1] in a military operation in Caracas, removing from power a leader whose hold on the presidency had been internationally contested as a constitutional usurpation since at least the fraudulent 2018 re-election—and whose democratic illegitimacy had been definitively documented after the July 2024 elections, [2] whose results the...
