Nicolás Maduro's capture in Venezuela draws striking parallels to the dramatic 1989 U.S. operation that brought down Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

The capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has spurred comparisons to the U.S. operation to arrest and extract Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. A look back at the 1989 case shines a light on

Saturday's capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro isn't the first time the U.S. entered a Latin American country by force to seize its leader on drugs charges. Why it matters: What comes next is likely years of court battles over how Maduro is charged,

The Trump administration’s Jan. 3 capture of President Nicolás Maduro bore some familiar echoes to the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama that ousted military strongman Manuel Noriega — and marked the most direct U.S. intervention in Latin America since.

The Venezuelan leader is now in U.S. custody. Decades earlier, the United States deposed the strongman who led Panama.

Retired Army Col. Chris Costa, who helped capture Panama’s military dictator, Manuel Noriega, in 1989, discusses Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s capture and its implications for U.S. strategy.

Trying a dictator has already been tried—and courts rejected all his legal defenses.

The US has carried out a major military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and flying him out of the country, a move that has revived memories of the 1989 US invasion of Panama and the arrest of their leader Manuel Noriega who was also arrested on drug-trafficking charges and flown to the United States.

The U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro has triggered sharp criticism from foreign governments and Democrats at home.

The U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for drug crimes, an action that echoes the 1989 arrest of Manuel Noriega in Panama following a U.S. invasion.

As with Saddam, Washington reframed the target from an objectionable ruler into an existential security threat, branding Maduro’s regime a “narco-terrorist” enterprise in much the same way Saddam was portrayed as a global menace linked to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.