{"id":15274,"date":"2026-01-05T17:27:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=15274"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:27:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:27:43","slug":"us-evangelical-leaders-react-to-trumps-capture-of-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=15274","title":{"rendered":"US Evangelical leaders react to Trump\u2019s capture of Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/> By  Anugrah Kumar<span class=\"quiet\">, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, January 04, 2026<\/span><span class=\"photo-des\">Venezuelans living in Argentina celebrate at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires on Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 3, 2026, that U.S. forces had captured Venezuela&#8217;s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital Caracas and other cities. <\/span> | <span class=\"credit\">TOMAS CUESTA\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Several Evangelical leaders across the country have responded to President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that the United States has captured dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro during a military strike in Caracas and will run Venezuela until a new transition plan is in place. Offering public praise, leaders, including the Rev. Franklin Graham and Ambassador Mike Huckabee, linked the operation to justice, spiritual deliverance and national security.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were apprehended during an early-morning raid on Saturday in Caracas.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the mission was carried out without any American casualties or equipment loss. He called it one of the most successful military operations in recent history and announced that the U.S. would oversee Venezuela\u2019s government until a \u201csafe, proper and judicious transition\u201d could occur.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro, previously charged in the U.S. on drug and weapons offenses, was the leader of the Cartel of the Suns and is the first target in the Narcotics Rewards Program to carry a $50 million bounty, according to the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro 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.<\/p>\n<p>On July 28, 2024, an election was held in which Maduro was declared the victor, giving him a third term in office. It was believed worldwide that his authoritarian regime had committed massive fraud to steal the election victory from opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n<p>Elvis Amoroso, president of the National Electoral Council and a Maduro ally, had declared that Maduro had won with 51% compared to 44% for Gonz\u00e1lez, with only 80% of the votes counted.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado insisted that Gonz\u00e1lez, a 74-year-old retired diplomat who took her place on the presidential ballot after the Maduro regime banned her from running, had won 70% of the vote compared to 30% for Maduro.<\/p>\n<p>The following pages list responses from five prominent Evangelical leaders and pastors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, January 04, 2026Venezuelans living in Argentina celebrate at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires on Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 3, 2026, that U.S. forces had captured Venezuela&#8217;s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital Caracas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[4573,424,250,3947,4628,803],"class_list":{"0":"post-15274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-capture","9":"tag-evangelical","10":"tag-leaders","11":"tag-maduro","12":"tag-react","13":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}