{"id":672172,"date":"2026-01-03T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672172\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:56:14","slug":"uk-france-praise-arrest-of-maduro-call-for-return-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672172\/","title":{"rendered":"UK, France praise arrest of Maduro, call for return of democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejoiced at America\u2019s capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, saying his ouster was long overdue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Venezuelan people are today rid of the dictatorship of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and can only rejoice at this,\u201d Mr Macron wrote in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The French leader said Mr Maduro, himself, rubbished the dignity of the Venezuelan people with his disregard of fundamental rights and freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has dealt a grave blow to the dignity of his own people,\u201d said the French president.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron affirmed that France will recognise Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia as president in what he hoped would be a peaceful transition of power.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Urrutia contested and lost the 2024 presidential election to Mr Maduro, an election observers deemed fraudulent.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, UK\u2019s Mr Starmer pledged his nation\u2019s support for the arrest of Mr Maduro, whom he had long regarded as an \u201cillegitimate president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe shed no tears about the end of his regime,\u201d Mr Starmer wrote in a social media post on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Starmer said the UK will engage its U.S. counterparts to seek \u201ca safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a mission codenamed \u201cOperation Armour Shield,\u201d U.S. special forces successfully captured President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, subsequently transporting them to New York to stand trial for drug-related charges.<\/p>\n<p>Videos on social media showed Venezuelans flooding the streets to celebrate Mr Maduro\u2019s capture.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/gazettengr.com\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Artboard-14.png\" alt=\"Banner\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejoiced at America\u2019s capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-672172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115833876743195003","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}