How Often Does the US Go After Another Nation's Leader?

The US has run plenty of covert raids. Capturing a sitting president of another country is something else. Here’s where Venezuela fits in the historical record.

As an elder Millennial, my first reaction to the news that the US had conducted a covert operation on Jan. 3, 2026, to capture Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, was one of déjà vu. I still remember exactly where I was (a parking lot in Michigan) when the news broke that the US had conducted a covert operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden i…