The kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro on the night of 2-3 January 2026 did not so much mark Venezuela’s return to the international stage as serve as a reminder that the country has never stopped being a major strategic asset. Washington now seems determined to place Venezuela and its natural resources under its control and to pull the country away from its alliances with China, Iran and Russia. In Caracas, Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of the Caribbean nation in Maduro’s absence, stated: ‘We will never again become the colony of any empire.’

This episode should not be seen as coming out of nowhere; it is part of a long history, marked by political conflicts, transformative ambitions and tensions between Washington and Caracas. Too often, the media focus only on spectacular events, which produces dangerously oversimplified analysis. Le Monde diplomatique, instead, is choosing to trace the thread of this history through a selection of archives devoted to the Bolivarian Revolution, which began with Hugo Chávez’s 1998 election: its origins, the war of narratives it sparked, its internal contradictions and the crises that continue to plague it.