Who is Nicolas Maduro?

"From humble beginnings in a working-class Caracas neighbourhood to an authoritarian presidency, here is a look at Maduro's life. Nicolas Maduro, 63, kept an iron grip on power for over a decade in Venezuela. It ended abruptly on Saturday, January 3, when United States forces abducted him and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, removing them from the country. The two are ostensibly to be tried in a US court on drug- and weapons-related charges. Who is Maduro? How did he come to lead Venezuela?"

"Maduro was born in a working-class family on November 23, 1962, in the El Valle neighbourhood of Caracas. His parents are Nicolas Maduro Garcia, a trade union leader, and Teresa de Jesus Moros, who also had three daughters together: Maria Teresa, Josefina, and Anita Maduro. Maduro was raised under the significant influence of his father's politics. Maduro once shared that his grandparents were of Sephardic Jewish descent, and converted to Catholicism upon arriving in Venezuela."

Nicolas Maduro was born on November 23, 1962, in the El Valle neighbourhood of Caracas into a working-class family. His father, Nicolas Maduro Garcia, was a trade-union leader and had significant influence on Maduro's politics. Maduro's grandparents were of Sephardic Jewish descent and converted to Catholicism upon arriving in Venezuela. He engaged in student politics at the Liceo Jose Avalos and reportedly served as student union president, with no records showing graduation. He joined Marxist-Leninist activism and in 1986 trained in Cuba at the Escuela Nacional de Cuadros Julio Antonio Mella. He worked as a Caracas metro bus driver and founded the SITRAMECA union in 1991.

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