Circulating image of handcuffed Venezuelan leader is edited
- Published on January 8, 2026 at 10:15
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
Bogus visuals of Nicolas Maduro in custody flooded social media after US troops snatched the Venezuelan leader in a lightning raid in Caracas. Among them is an altered picture depicting him wearing a military uniform and in handcuffs, but which in fact superimposed his image on an unrelated photo of a detained Ukrainian business tycoon.
"The US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in less than two hours," reads an X post written in traditional Chinese and shared January 3, 2026.
On President Donald Trump's orders, US commandos captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in the early hours of January 3 in Caracas backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment, and flew them to the United States (archived link).
The couple pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in a New York courthouse on January 5 (archived link).
Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro as his former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president. The Venezuelan government announced the attack that led to Maduro's capture left at least 100 people dead and a similar number wounded (archived link).
Trump's administration said it will dictate decisions to Venezuela's interim leaders and control the country's oil sales "indefinitely" after toppling Maduro (archived link).
AFP has debunked other fabricated images that purport to show Maduro after his capture.
The picture supposedly showing the handcuffed leader was also shared on YouTube, Facebook, Threads and Hong Kong-based forum LIHKG. It also spread in other languages such as English, Spanish, German and Bengali.
However, reverse image searches found the original picture shows Ukrainian business tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It was uploaded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Instagram account on April 13, 2022 (archived link).
Ukrainian authorities said on April 12, 2022 they had captured Medvedchuk who escaped from house arrest after Russia's invasion (archived link).
They also released a video of the tycoon where he asked to be exchanged in return for an evacuation of civilians and troops from the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russia's invasion (archived link).
A Ukrainian flag can be seen on his left arm.
A separate reverse search found the picture of Maduro's face in the edited image was taken from a photo published on the website of the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on June 11, 2022 during talks between the leaders (archived link). AFP also distributed pictures of the meeting on the day.
The Venezuelan leader was in Iran for a visit, and the two countries signed a deal on cooperation in the energy and financial sectors (archived link).
Maduro was seen in a grey tracksuit in a photo that US President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account on January 4 after the Venezuelan leader was captured, and wore a black jacket while being escorted in the US Drug Enforcement Administration's headquarters (archived link).
There have been no official photographs depicting him wearing a camouflage uniform as of January 8.
More of our reporting on misinformation sparked by Maduro's ouster can be found here.
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