The Rise of Maduro: A Diplomat’s View from Caracas

In this episode of Find It, host Kate Moorhead Carroll sits down with John Caulfield, retired Senior Foreign Service Officer and former Acting Ambassador to Venezuela (2008–2011). Drawing on his firsthand experience in Caracas during Hugo Chávez’s presidency, Caulfield unpacks how Nicolás Maduro rose from bus driver and labor activist to the presidency of Venezuela—and how power, corruption, and foreign influence shaped that journey. Together, Kate and John explore Maduro’s relationship with Chávez and Cuba, the collapse of Venezuela’s democracy, and the implications for international law and U.S. foreign policy. Caulfield offers rare insider perspective on a nation’s descent from […]