A running list of US interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean after World War II

On Jan. 3, 2026, President Trump authorized an attack on Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his rendition to New York. Once there, he and wife Cilia Flores were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.

While the episode was a departure from more recent, comparatively hands-off American policy in the region, it was very much aligned with a long post-World War II history of U.S. interventions designed to change unfriendly regimes into friendly ones.