By Michael Gryboski, Editor Tuesday, January 06, 2026Demonstrators set fire to a poster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, copies of his book and Libyan flags during a protest against Kadhafi outside the Libyan embassy in Ankara on August 22, 2011. | ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images
The United States military carried out Trump administration orders to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to face criminal charges for weapons offenses and narcotrafficking.
Maduro, leader of the criminal drug-trafficking organization Cartel of the Suns, had long been accused of running a narco-terrorism operation in coordination with FARC and other armed groups, and of violently repressing dissent in Venezuela, according to the U.S. State Department.
The operation has garnered divisive reactions, with some celebrating Maduro’s removal from power while others believe it was a dangerous overreach of power by the Trump administration.
For much of its history, the U.S. has engaged in various efforts to influence or change the regimes of other nations, either through invasion, multinational intervention or covert backing of factions.
In many, if not most, of these efforts, the U.S. has received support and backing from people within the country itself or from exiles who fled persecution at the hands of the ruling government.
Here are seven notable instances in which the U.S. has backed regime change in other countries since the end of World War II.
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