Angel Gonzalez
Special for La Jornada
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, January 11, 2026, p. 3
Caracas. Deputy Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, son of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, reported yesterday that his father sent a message through his lawyers stating that he and his wife, Cilia Flores, are fine.
“The lawyers have told us that he is strong; he told us not to be sad, that ‘we are fine; we are fighters,'” Maduro Guerra said during a meeting with the Caracas section of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
He assured that his father is “a man that they could not defeat in any way and they had to use disproportionate force, but they did not defeat him, he is strong.”
The Venezuelan president was kidnapped on Saturday, January 3, from the presidential residence in Caracas through a bloody military operation carried out by the United States, which left more than a hundred dead – civilians and military – as well as a similar number of wounded.
The acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, reiterated on Saturday that her responsibility is to take charge of the government while achieving the freedom of President Nicolás Maduro, kidnapped by US troops a week ago.
One of Rodríguez’s first actions as the president in charge was to create a high-level commission to carry out all the political and legal efforts to achieve the freedom of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who on Monday, January 5, were presented before a New York court, accused by the United States government of several criminal charges.
“A year ago we swore with President Maduro and today we swear with loyalty for his freedom… There is no doubt here, the Venezuelan people rule here and there is a government, I have the responsibility of taking charge while we achieve the freedom of President Nicolás Maduro,” he said during the supervision of the deployment of a social care operation in Petare, state of Miranda.
Popular mobilizations for the eighth consecutive day
For the eighth consecutive day, street demonstrations were recorded in all regional capitals to condemn the US military aggression and demand the release of Maduro and the first lady.
The Caracas mobilization was led by Nahum Fernández, head of government of the Capital District, who criticized that the media and networks want to “minimize the response of the Venezuelan combatants who bravely faced the invaders and gave their lives in defense of the homeland.” Likewise, he assured that the message that Venezuela sends to the world today is not one of war, but of peace and dialogue.
Likewise, in all the integral defense regions there were activities with the bodies of the Bolivarian National Militia; Weapons training and resistance warfare were carried out, reported the head of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, General Domingo Hernández Lárez.
Strengthening diplomatic ties
For his part, the chancellor, Yván Gil, announced a series of meetings with diplomatic representatives accredited in Venezuela, reaffirming the relations of the Bolivarian State with different partners.
When meeting with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Mélik-Bagdasárov, Gil assured: “We continue working on the cooperation agenda between both countries.”
Likewise, he stated that they agreed “on the importance of jointly defending dialogue, diplomacy and respect for international norms and the sovereignty of peoples as the only ways to promote constructive bilateral and international relations.”
After meeting with the German ambassador, Volker Pellet, and the charge d’affaires of the Netherlands, Carmen Gonsalves, he assured that Venezuela is making progress in the development of bilateral work agendas.
Both diplomatic representatives expressed their condemnation of the illegal attack perpetrated by the United States against Venezuela and agreed to define it as a violation of international law, the United Nations Charter and the immunity of President Maduro.
