title: Big Ten Conference

text: Women's lacrosse became a Big Ten-sponsored sport in the 2015 season. The Big Ten women's lacrosse league includes Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, and Rutgers. Big Ten women's lacrosse programs have 23 of the 38 all-time NCAA championships, including 12 of the last 15. Maryland has earned one pre-NCAA national title and has won 14 NCAA national championships, including seven straight from 1995 to 2001 and most recently in 2019. Northwestern has claimed seven NCAA titles, including five straight from 2005 to 2009. Penn State has earned three pre-NCAA national titles and two NCAA titles in 1987 and 1989. Johns Hopkins became the seventh women's lacrosse program in the Big Ten as of July 1, 2016.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: The Big Ten men's soccer league includes Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin. Big Ten men's soccer programs have combined to win 15 NCAA national championships.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: The members of the Big Ten have longstanding rivalries with each other, especially on the football field. Each school, except Maryland and Rutgers, has at least one traveling trophy at stake. The following is a list of active rivalries in the Big Ten Conference with totals & records through the completion of the 2016 season.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: From 1993 through 2010, the Big Ten football schedule was set up with each team having two permanent matches within the conference, with the other eight teams in the conference rotating out of the schedule in pairs for two-year stints. Permanent matches were as follows:


title: Big Ten Conference

text: This system was discontinued after the 2010 season, as teams became grouped into two divisions, and would play all teams in their division once, with one protected cross-over game, and two games rotating against the other five opponents from the opposing division.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Most of the above permanent rivalries were maintained. By virtue of the new alignment, a handful of new permanent divisional opponents were created, as all pairs of teams within the same division would face off each season. Furthermore, three new permanent inter-divisional matches resulted from the realignment: Purdue–Iowa, Michigan State–Indiana, and Penn State–Nebraska. The following past permanent matches were maintained across divisions: Minnesota–Wisconsin, Michigan–Ohio State, and Illinois–Northwestern.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: The new alignment, however, caused some of the above permanent rivalries to be discontinued. These were: Iowa–Wisconsin, Northwestern–Purdue, and Michigan State–Penn State. These matchups would continue to be played, but only twice every five years on average. More rivalries were disrupted, and some resumed on a yearly basis, when the league realigned into East and West Divisions for the 2014 season with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. The two new schools were placed in the new East Division with Penn State, and the two Indiana schools were divided (Indiana to the East and Purdue to the West). With the move to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016, all cross-division games will be held at least once in a four-year cycle except for Indiana–Purdue, which is the only protected cross-division game. The conference later announced that once the new scheduling format takes effect in 2016, members will be prohibited from playing FCS teams, and required to play at least one non-conference game against a team in the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC; presumably, this would also allow for non-conference games against Big Ten opponents that are not on the conference schedule). Games against independents Notre Dame (an ACC member in non-football sports) and BYU will also count toward the Power Five requirement.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Four Big Ten teams—Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan State and Michigan—had rivalries in football with Notre Dame. After the University of Southern California with 35 wins (including a vacated 2005 win), the Michigan State Spartans have the most wins against the Irish, with 28. The Purdue Boilermakers follow with 26, and Michigan ranks fourth all-time with 24. Northwestern and Notre Dame had a yearly contest, with the winner taking home a shillelagh, much like the winner of the USC–Notre Dame and Purdue–Notre Dame contests now receive. The Northwestern–Notre Dame shillelagh was largely forgotten by the early 1960s and is now solely an element of college football's storied past.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Penn State has a longstanding rivalry with Pittsburgh of the ACC, but the two schools did not meet from 2000 until renewing the rivalry with an alternating home-and-home series from 2016 to 2019. Penn State also has long histories with independent Notre Dame; Temple of The American; Syracuse, and Boston College of the ACC; and West Virginia, of the Big 12 Conference. Additionally, Penn State maintains strong intrastate rivalries with Patriot League universities Bucknell in men's basketball and men's lacrosse, and Lehigh in wrestling. Most of these rivalries were cultivated while Penn State operated independent of conference affiliation; the constraints of playing a full conference schedule, especially in football, have reduced the number of meetings between Penn State and its non-Big Ten rivals.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Iowa has an in-state rivalry with Iowa State of the Big 12, with the winner getting the Cy-Hawk Trophy in football. Iowa and Iowa State also compete annually in the Cy-Hawk Series sponsored by Hy-Vee (as of 2011 this series is now sponsored by The Iowa Corngrowers Association), the competition includes all head-to-head regular season competitions in all sports. Iowa also holds rivalries in basketball with the state's other two Division I programs, Drake and Northern Iowa.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Indiana has an out-of-conference rivalry with Kentucky of the SEC (see Indiana–Kentucky rivalry). While the two schools played in football for many years, the rivalry was rooted in their decades of national success in men's basketball. The two no longer play one another in football, but their basketball rivalry continued until a dispute about game sites ended the series after 2011. In the last season of the rivalry (2011–12), the teams played twice. During the regular season, then-unranked Indiana defeated then-#1 ranked Kentucky 73–72 at Assembly Hall. The Wildcats avenged the loss in the NCAA tournament, defeating Indiana 102–90 in the South Regional final in Atlanta on their way to a national title. The teams next played in the 2016 NCAA tournament, with Indiana winning.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Illinois has a longstanding basketball rivalry with the SEC's Missouri Tigers, with the two men's teams squaring off annually in the "Braggin' Rights" game. It has been held in St. Louis since 1980, first at the St. Louis Arena and since 1994 at the Enterprise Center. This rivalry has been carried over into football as "The Arch Rivalry" with games played at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis in 2002 and 2003 and four games in 2007 through 2010.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Wisconsin has a long-standing in-state basketball rivalry with Marquette. The series has intensified as of late with both teams having made the Final Four in recent years. The schools also played an annual football game before Marquette abandoned its football program in 1961. The school also has minor rivalries in basketball with the two other Division I members of the University of Wisconsin System, which include the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Similarly, Nebraska has an in-state rivalry with another Big East school in Creighton, mostly in basketball and baseball.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Minnesota men's ice hockey has a prolific and fierce border rivalry with the University of North Dakota. The two teams played annually between 1948 and 2013 as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association prior to the inception of the Big Ten Conference. The rivalry resumed in 2016 in non-conference action.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Maryland has many rivalries outside of the conference, most notably Duke, Virginia, West Virginia, and Navy. Maryland left the Duke and Virginia rivalries behind in the ACC when it joined the Big Ten.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: In the early days of the Big Ten, the Chicago-Michigan game was played on Thanksgiving, usually with conference championship implications. It was considered one of the first major rivalries of the conference.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Three Big Ten football stadiums seat over 100,000 spectators: Michigan Stadium (Michigan), Beaver Stadium (Penn State), and Ohio Stadium (Ohio State). Only five other college football stadiums have a capacity over 100,000 (four in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and one in the Big 12 Conference). Michigan Stadium and Beaver Stadium, respectively, are the two largest American football stadiums by capacity in the United States, and all three of the Big Ten's largest venues rank among the ten largest sports stadiums in the world.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: Big Ten schools also play in two of the 10 largest on-campus basketball arenas in the country: Ohio State's Value City Arena and Maryland's Xfinity Center. Additionally, arenas at Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Penn State rank among the 20 largest on-campus basketball facilities in the United States. The Big Ten Conference has the most on-campus basketball arenas with seating capacities of 15,000 or more of any NCAA conference, with seven. (Of the other conferences considered "power conferences" in men's basketball, the ACC has two such arenas, the Big East none, the Big 12 two, the Pac-12 one, and the SEC five. Outside of these conferences, the Mountain West Conference has four such arenas and the West Coast Conference one through the 2022–23 season, after which the WCC member with such an arena, BYU, will join the Big 12.)


title: Big Ten Conference

text: As of 2017, the Big Ten currently has broadcast rights agreements with Fox Sports, ESPN, and CBS Sports (primarily for college basketball), which last through the 2023–24 academic year. In 2006, the conference formed a dedicated cable network, Big Ten Network, in partnership with Fox Sports. The network carries coverage of Big Ten athletics (including events not carried by the Big Ten's other media partners), studio shows, as well as other original programs and documentaries profiling the conference and its members.


title: Big Ten Conference

text: On August 18, 2022, the Big Ten announced that it had reached seven-year broadcast rights deals with Fox, CBS, and for the first time, NBC Sports, beginning in the 2023–24 academic year, ending an association between the conference and ESPN dating back to the 1980s. A major goal for the new contracts was to establish specific broadcast windows for Big Ten football games across its three partners, with Fox, CBS, and NBC primarily holding rights to Noon ET, 3:30 p.m ET, and primetime games respectively. The contracts were estimated to be worth at least $7 billion, but also reportedly includes an "escalator clause" that will raise the value of the contracts if the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were to specifically join the Big Ten.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade union leader before being elected to the National Assembly in 2000. He was appointed to a number of positions under President Hugo Chávez, serving as President of the National Assembly from 2005 to 2006, as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and as the vice president from 2012 to 2013 under Chávez. After Chávez's death was announced on 5 March 2013, Maduro assumed the presidency. A special presidential election was held in 2013, which Maduro won with 50.62% of the vote as the United Socialist Party of Venezuela candidate. He has ruled Venezuela by decree since 2015 through powers granted to him by the ruling party legislature.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Shortages in Venezuela and decreased living standards led to protests beginning in 2014 that escalated into daily marches nationwide, repression of dissent and a decline in Maduro's popularity. An opposition-led National Assembly was elected in 2015 and a movement toward recalling Maduro began in 2016, which was ultimately cancelled by Maduro's government; Maduro maintained power through the Supreme Tribunal, the National Electoral Council and the military. The Supreme Tribunal removed power from the elected National Assembly, resulting in a constitutional crisis and protests in 2017. As a response to the protests, Maduro called for a rewrite of the constitution, and the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela was elected in 2017. On 20 May 2018, Presidential elections were called; President Maduro was sworn in on 10 January 2019 with widespread condemnation, and the president of the National Assembly, Guaidó, was declared interim president on 23 January 2019 by the legislative body. Following a failed military uprising on 30 April 2019, representatives of Guaidó and Maduro began mediation. Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Maduro has been reapproached on the international stage due to global energy concerns.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro has been described by some as an autocrat and a "dictator". Between 2013 and 2022, Venezuela dropped 42 places in the Press Freedom Index. In 2018, a Board of Independent Experts designated by the Organization of American States (OAS) found that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela during Maduro's presidency.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Nicolás Maduro Moros was born on 23 November 1962 in Caracas, Venezuela, into a working-class family. His father, Nicolás Maduro García, who was a prominent trade union leader, died in a motor vehicle accident on 22 April 1989. His mother, Teresa de Jesús Moros, was born in Cúcuta, a Colombian border town at the boundary with Venezuela. He was born into a leftist family and "militant dreamer of the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo (MEP)". Maduro was raised in Calle 14, a street in Los Jardines, El Valle, a working-class neighborhood on the western outskirts of Caracas. The only male of four siblings, he had "three sisters, María Teresa, Josefina, and Anita".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro was raised as a Roman Catholic. In 2012 it was reported that he was a follower of Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba and previously visited the guru in India in 2005. Racially, Maduro has indicated that he identifies as mestizo ("mixed [race]"), stating that he includes as a part of his "mestizaje" ("racial mixture") admixture from the Indigenous peoples of the Americas (Maduro said "Indians") and Africans. He stated in a 2013 interview that "my grandparents were Jewish, from a Sephardic Moorish background, and converted to Catholicism in Venezuela".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro has been married twice. His first marriage was to Adriana Guerra Angulo, with whom he had his only son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, also known as "Nicolasito", who was appointed to several senior government posts (Chief of the Presidency's Special Inspectors Body, head of the National Film School, and a seat in the National Assembly). He later married Cilia Flores, a lawyer and politician who replaced Maduro as president of the National Assembly in August 2006, when he resigned to become Minister of Foreign Affairs, becoming the first woman to serve as president of the National Assembly. The two had been in a romantic relationship since the 1990s when Flores was Hugo Chávez's lawyer following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts and were married in July 2013 months after Maduro became president. While they have no children together, Maduro has three step-children from his wife's first marriage to Walter Ramón Gavidia; Walter Jacob, Yoswel, and Yosser.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro is a fan of John Lennon's music and his campaigns for peace and love. Maduro has said that he was inspired by the music and counter-culture of 1960s and 70s, mentioning also Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro attended a public high school, the Liceo José Ávalos, in El Valle. His introduction to politics was when he became a member of his high school's student union. According to school records, Maduro did not graduate from high school.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: According to Carlos Peñaloza, Maduro was considered a person of interest by Venezuelan authorities in the kidnapping of , an American businessman and head of Owens-Illinois in Venezuela, who was held hostage by leftist militants who would later become close to Hugo Chávez.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro found employment as a bus driver for many years for the Caracas Metro company. He began his political career in the 1980s, by becoming an unofficial trade unionist representing the bus drivers of the Caracas Metro system. He was also employed as a bodyguard for José Vicente Rangel during Rangel's unsuccessful 1983 presidential campaign.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: At 24 years of age, Maduro resided in Havana with other militants of leftist organizations in South America who had moved to Cuba in 1986, attending a one-year course at the Escuela Nacional de Cuadros Julio Antonio Mella, a centre of political education directed by the Union of Young Communists. During his time in Cuba, Maduro was instructed by , a senior member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba who was close to Fidel Castro.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: According to Carlos Peñaloza, Maduro was allegedly tasked by the Castro government to serve as a "mole" working for the Cuba's Dirección de Inteligencia to approach Hugo Chávez, who was experiencing a burgeoning military career.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In the early 1990s, he joined MBR-200 and campaigned for the release of Chávez when he was jailed for his role in the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts. In the late 1990s, Maduro was instrumental in founding the Movement of the Fifth Republic, which supported Chávez in his run for president in 1998.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro was elected on the MVR ticket to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies in 1998, to the National Constituent Assembly in 1999, and finally to the National Assembly in 2000, at all times representing the Capital District. The Assembly elected him as Speaker, a role he held from 2005 until 2006.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006, and served under Chávez in that position until being appointed Vice President of Venezuela in October 2012, after the presidential elections. According to "BBC Mundo", during Maduro's tenure as foreign minister, "he was considered a key player in pushing the foreign policy of his country beyond Latin American borders to approach almost any government that rivaled the United States."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Venezuela's foreign policy stances during his term included ending unofficial relations with Taiwan in favor of the People's Republic of China, support for Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, breaking off diplomatic ties with Israel during the 2008–09 Gaza War, recognizing and establishing diplomatic relations with the State of Palestine, a turnaround in relations with Colombia in the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis (with Ecuador) and again in the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis, recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, and support for Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Temir Porras, a 2019 visiting professor at Paris Institute of Political Studies who was Maduro's chief of staff during his tenure as foreign minister, said that in the early days of Chavismo, Maduro was considered "pragmatic" and a "very skilled politician" who was "good at negotiating and bargaining". Porras said the Maduro "was extremely effective at getting in touch with heads of state and getting the agreements (...) signed and achieved in a very rapid period of time". According to Rory Carroll, Maduro did not speak any foreign languages while serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In September 2006, while attempting to travel back to Venezuela via Miami, Florida, Maduro was briefly detained by Homeland Security officers at the John F. Kennedy International Airport for around 90 minutes, after paying for three airplane tickets in cash. Both Maduro and President Hugo Chávez were in New York City attending the 61st session of the UN General Assembly, where President Chávez called US President George W. Bush "the devil" during his speech.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The incident began when Maduro tried to pick up an item that had been screened at a security checkpoint at JFK International Airport, security personnel told Maduro that he was prohibited from doing so. Maduro later identified himself as a diplomat from the Venezuela government, but officials still escorted him to a room for conducting secondary screening. At one point, authorities ordered Maduro and other Venezuelan officials to spread their arms and legs and be frisked, but Maduro and others forcefully refused. His diplomatic passport and ticket were retained for a time, and finally given back to him.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Speaking at the Venezuelan mission to the UN after his release, Maduro said his detention by the US authorities was illegal and he filed a complaint at the United Nations. US and UN officials called the incident regrettable but said Maduro had been identified for "secondary screening". Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke denied that Maduro was mistreated, saying that there was not evidence of abnormalities during the screening process. A UN diplomat said that Maduro was not authorized to speak publicly while his trip was delayed because he had showed up late without a ticket, prompting the screening. Maduro said the incident prevented him from traveling home on the same day.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: When he was informed of the incident, President Chávez said Maduro's detention was retaliation for Chávez' 2006 speech at the UN and stated that the authorities detained Maduro over his links to the Venezuelan failed coup in 1992, a charge that President Chávez denied.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Prior to his appointment to the vice presidency, Maduro had been chosen by Chávez in 2011 to succeed him in the presidency if he were to die from cancer. This choice was made due to Maduro's loyalty to Chávez and because of his good relations with other chavistas such as Elías Jaua, former minister Jesse Chacón and Jorge Rodríguez. Bolivarian officials predicted that following Chávez's death, Maduro would have political difficulties and that Venezuela would experience instability.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Chávez appointed Maduro Vice President of Venezuela on 13 October 2012, shortly after Chavez' victory in that month's presidential election. Two months later, on 8 December 2012, Chávez announced that his recurring cancer had returned and that he would be returning to Cuba for emergency surgery and further medical treatment. Chávez said that, should his condition worsen and a new presidential election be called to replace him, Venezuelans should vote for Maduro to succeed him. This was the first time that Chávez named a potential successor to his movement, as well as the first time he publicly acknowledged the possibility of his death.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Chávez's endorsement of Maduro sidelined Diosdado Cabello, a former vice president and powerful Socialist Party official with ties to the armed forces, who had been widely considered a top candidate to be Chávez's successor. After Maduro was endorsed by Chávez, Cabello "immediately pledged loyalty" to both men.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Upon the death of Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013, Maduro assumed the powers and responsibilities of the president. He appointed Jorge Arreaza to take his place as vice president. Since Chávez died within the first four years of his term, the Constitution of Venezuela stated that a presidential election had to be held within 30 days of his death. Maduro was unanimously chosen as the Socialist Party's candidate in the election. When he assumed temporary power, opposition leaders argued that Maduro violated articles 229, 231, and 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, by assuming power over the president of the National Assembly.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The succession to the presidency of Maduro in 2013, according to Corrales and Penfold, was due to multiple mechanisms established by Maduro's predecessor, Chávez. Initially, oil prices were high enough for Maduro to maintain necessary spending for support, specifically with the military. Foreign ties that were established by Chávez were also used by Maduro as he applied skills that he had learned while serving as a foreign minister. Finally, the PSUV and government institutions aligned behind Maduro, and "the regime used the institutions of repression and autocracy, also created under Chávez, to become more repressive vis-à-vis the opposition".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In April 2013, Maduro was elected president, narrowly defeating opposition candidate Henrique Capriles with just 1.5% of the vote separating the two. Capriles demanded a recount, refusing to recognize the outcome as valid. Maduro was inaugurated as president on 19 April, after the election commission had promised a full audit of the election results. In October 2013, he announced the creation of a new agency, the Vice Ministry of Supreme Happiness, to coordinate social programmes.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Opposition leaders in Venezuela delivered a May 2016 petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) calling for a recall referendum, with the populace to vote on whether to remove Maduro from office. On 5 July 2016, the Venezuelan intelligence service detained five opposition activists involved with the recall referendum, with two other activists of the same party, Popular Will, also arrested. After delays in verification of the signatures, protestors alleged the government was intentionally delaying the process. The government, in response, argued the protestors were part of a plot to topple Maduro. On 1 August 2016, CNE announced that enough signatures had been validated for the recall process to continue. While opposition leaders pushed for the recall to be held before the end of 2016, allowing a new presidential election to take place, the government vowed a recall would not occur until 2017, ensuring the current vice president would potentially come to power.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In May 2017, Maduro proposed the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, which was later held on 30 July 2017 despite wide international condemnation. The United States sanctioned Maduro following the election, labeling him as a "dictator", preventing him from entering the United States. Other nations, such as China, Russia, and Cuba offered their support to Maduro and the Constituent Assembly elections. The presidential elections, whose original electoral date was scheduled for December 2018, was subsequently pulled ahead to 22 April before being pushed back to 20 May. Analysts described the poll as a show election, with the elections having the lowest voter turnout in the country's democratic era.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Beginning six months after being elected, Maduro was given the power to rule by decree by the pre-2015 Venezuelan legislature (from 19 November 2013 to 19 November 2014, 15 March 2015 to 31 December 2015) and later by the Supreme Tribunal (since 15 January 2016) to address the ongoing economic crisis in the country, with strong condemnation by the Venezuelan opposition claiming that the legislature's power had been usurped by the court. His presidency has coincided with a decline in Venezuela's socioeconomic status, with crime, inflation, poverty and hunger increasing; analysts have attributed Venezuela's decline to both Chávez and Maduro's economic policies, while Maduro has blamed speculation and economic warfare waged by his political opponents.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: A 2018 Amnesty International report "accused Nicolas Maduro's government of committing some of the worst human rights violations in Venezuela's history". The report found the violence was carried out especially in Venezuela's poor neighborhoods, and included "8,292 extrajudicial executions carried out between 2015 and 2017". In one year, 22% of homicides (4,667) were committed by security forces. Amnesty International's Erika Guevara-Rosas said, "The government of President Maduro should guarantee the right to life, instead of taking the lives of the country's young people."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: During the later years of Maduro's presidency, pro-government police and military forces launched the "", which they stated targeted street gangs and non-state paramilitary formations which they alleged had taken control of poor neighbourhoods. The operations reportedly resulted in thousands of arrests and an estimated 9,000 deaths, with the Venezuelan opposition claiming that the operations are actually a state instrument of repression. The UN subsequently released a report condemning the violent methods of the operation. Although the Venezuelan Government's Ombudsman, Tarek William Saab has admitted that his office received dozens of reports of "police excesses", he defended the need for the operations and stated that his office would be working alongside the police and military "to safeguard human rights". The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has criticised the UN's report, calling it "neither objective, nor impartial" and listed what it believed were a total of 60 errors in the report.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 4 August 2018, at least two drones armed with explosives detonated in the area where Maduro was delivering an address to military officers in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government claims the event was a targeted attempt to assassinate Maduro, though the cause and intention of the explosions is debated. Others have suggested the incident was a false flag operation designed by the government to justify repression of opposition in Venezuela.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Porras (Maduro's former chief of staff) said in 2019 that Maduro "delivered practically nothing in terms of public policy, in terms of direction" during his first term because, in Porras' opinion, "he does not have a clear vision for the country. He is very much focused on consolidating his power among his own peers in Chavismo and much less on exercising or implementing a strategic vision for the country." However, following increased international sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis in 2019, the Maduro government abandoned socialist policies established by Chávez, such as price and currency controls, which resulted in the country seeing a rebound from economic decline. "The Economist" wrote that Venezuela had also obtained "extra money from selling gold (both from illegal mines and from its reserves) and narcotics".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 3 May 2020, Venezuelan security forces prevented an attempt to overthrow Maduro by armed Venezuelan dissidents. The attempt was organised by an American private security company, Silvercorp USA, headed by Jordan Goudreau and the men were trained in Colombia. Goudreau claimed the operation had involved 60 troops, including two former US special forces members. The Venezuelan government claimed the United States and its Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were responsible for the operation and had support from Colombia. Juan Guaidó denied involvement in the operation. Goudreau claimed that Guaidó and two political advisers had signed a contract with him for US$213 million in October 2019. Eight of the attackers were killed, with another thirteen, including two Americans, captured.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro has a strategic partnership with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Maduro discussed increasing cooperation with Russia. Due to the raised oil prices resulting from the conflict, conversations have begun between Maduro and US officials, suggesting the possibility of lifting of US sanctions on Venezuela and improved relations between the two countries. During the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November, multiple world leaders were seen interacting with Maduro, including President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa and American John Kerry, with President Macron addressing Maduro as "president" and stating "I would be happy if we could talk to each other for longer to engage in useful bilateral work for the region." Days later on 27 November, the United States eased sanctions on Venezuela and allowed Chevron Corporation to temporarily work with the Venezuelan government.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: With widespread condemnation, President Maduro was sworn in on 10 January 2019. Minutes after he took the oath, the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution declaring his presidency illegitimate, and calling for new elections. The National Assembly invoked a state of emergency, and some nations removed their embassies from Venezuela, with Colombia, and the United States saying Maduro was converting Venezuela into a "de facto" dictatorship. The president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim president on 23 January 2019; the US, Canada, Brazil and several Latin American countries supported Guaidó as interim president the same day; Russia, China, and Cuba supported Maduro. As of March 2019, over 50 countries, the OAS, and the Lima Group do not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. The Supreme Tribunal rejected the National Assembly decisions, while the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile welcomed Guaidó as interim president. The United States Department of State issued a communication stating that Maduro had used unconstitutional means and a "sham electoral system" to maintain an unlawful presidency that is not recognized by most of Venezuela's neighbors.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro disputed Guaidó's claim and broke off diplomatic ties with several nations who recognized Guaidó's claim. Maduro's government states that the crisis is a ""coup d'état" led by the United States to topple him and control the country's oil reserves."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro has been accused of authoritarian leadership since he took office in 2013. After the opposition won the 2015 parliamentary elections, the lame duck National Assembly—consisting of pro-Maduro Bolivarian officials—filled the Supreme Tribunal of Justice with Maduro allies; the "New York Times" reported that Venezuela was "moving closer to one-man rule".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In 2016, the Supreme Tribunal refused to acknowledge the democratically elected National Assembly's attempts to recall Maduro, and the words "dictator" and "authoritarianism" began to appear: "Foreign Affairs" wrote of a "full-on dictatorship", Javier Corrales wrote in "Americas Quarterly" that Venezuela was "transition[ing] to a full dictatorship", and OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro said that Maduro was becoming a dictator. After election officials closely aligned with the government blocked an attempt to summon a recall referendum against Maduro, Venezuelan political analysts cited in "The Guardian" warned of authoritarianism and a dictatorship.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The Supreme Tribunal took over the legislative powers of the National Assembly in March, provoking the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis; a Corrales opinion piece in the "Washington Post" asked, "What happens next for the dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro?" With the 2017 Constituent National Assembly poised to declare itself the governing body of Venezuela, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned President Maduro, labeled him a dictator, and prevented him from entering the United States. Chilean president Sebastián Piñera also labeled Maduro a dictator. Human Rights Watch described the process that had led to the National Assembly's being taken over, labeled Venezuela a dictatorship, and said the "Venezuelan government is tightening its stranglehold on the country’s basic institutions of democracy at a terrifying speed." The "Financial Times" published an article,"Sending a message to Venezuela’s dictatorship" discussing "international censure of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s thuggish president". The "Chicago Tribune" editorial board wrote an opinion that "the Trump administration should harbor no illusions about Maduro, who appears bent on assuming the mantle of dictator." Vox Media published an opinion entitled "How Venezuela went from a rich democracy to a dictatorship on the brink of collapse."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The Economist Intelligence Unit stated that during Maduro's presidency, the country's democracy deteriorated further, with the 2017 report downgrading Venezuela from a hybrid regime to an authoritarian regime, the lowest category, with an index of 3.87 (the second lowest in Latin America, along with Cuba), reflecting "Venezuela's continued slide towards dictatorship" as the government has side-lined the opposition-dominated National Assembly, jailed or disenfranchised leading opposition politicians and violently suppressed opposition protests.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Venezuelan presidential elections were held prematurely in May 2018; the "New York Times" printed a news piece about the elections, headlining the word "dictator", "Critics Say He Can't Beat a dictator. This Venezuelan thinks he can". Miguel Angel Latouche, a political science professor at Central University of Venezuela wrote an opinion piece entitled, "Venezuela is now a dictatorship", and "CNN" reported that US Republicans were using the term "Venezuelan dictator" to describe a Democratic candidate. Roger Noriega wrote in the "Miami Herald" that a "lawless regime" and "narcodictatorship" headed by Maduro, Tareck El Aissami and Diosdado Cabello had driven "Venezuela to the brink of collapse".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The 10 January 2019 second inauguration of Nicolás Maduro was widely condemned and led to further commentary that Maduro had consolidated power and become a dictator from the "Irish Times", the "Times", the Council on Foreign Relations, German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", and the "Economist".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau labeled Maduro an "illegitimate dictator" responsible for "terrible oppression" and the humanitarian crisis. The Canadian minister of foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland, stated that "Having seized power through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections held on May 20, 2018, the Maduro regime is now fully entrenched as a dictatorship." Presidents Mauricio Macri of Argentina and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil condemned what they called Maduro's dictatorship.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Univisión announcer Jorge Ramos described his detention following a live interview of Maduro, saying that if Maduro does not release the seized video of the interview, "he is behaving exactly like a dictator". In an interview with Telemundo, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders stated "of course Maduro is a dictator". Reporter Kenneth Rapoza wrote an opinion piece for "Forbes" with the title, "Basically everyone now knows Venezuela is a dictatorship." Roger Noriega described what he called dictatorial tactics from a dictatorial regime.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Nicolás Maduro's birthplace and nationality have been questioned several times, with some placing doubt that he could hold the office of the presidency, given that Article 227 of the Venezuelan constitution states that "To be chosen as president of the Republic it is required to be Venezuelan by birth, not having another nationality, being over thirty years old, of a secular state and not being in any state or being in another firm position and fulfilling the other requirements in this Constitution. After his triumph in the 2013 presidential elections, opposition deputies warned that they would investigate the double nationality of Maduro.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: By 2014, official declarations by the Venezuela government shared four different birthplaces of Maduro. Tachira state's governor José Vielma Mora assured that Maduro was born in El Palotal sector of San Antonio del Táchira and that he had relatives that live in the towns of Capacho and Rubio. The opposition deputy reviewed the civil registry of El Valle, as well as the civil registry referenced by Vielma Mora, without finding any proof or documentation that could confirm Maduro's birthplace. In June 2013, two months after assuming the presidency, Maduro claimed in a press conference in Rome that he was born in Caracas, in Los Chaguaramos, in San Pedro Parish. During an interview with a Spanish journalist, also in June 2013, Elías Jaua claimed that Maduro was born in El Valle parish, in the Libertador Municipality of Caracas.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In October 2013 Tibisay Lucena, head of the National Electoral Council, assured in the Globovisión TV show "Vladimir a la 1" that Maduro was born in La Candelaria Parish in Caracas, showing copies of the registry presentation book of all the newborns the day when allegedly Maduro was born. In April 2016 during a "cadena nacional", Maduro changed his birthplace narrative once more, saying that he was born in Los Chaguaramos, specifically in Valle Abajo, adding that he was baptized in the San Pedro church.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In 2016 a group of Venezuelans asked the National Assembly to investigate whether Nicolás Maduro was Colombian in an open letter addressed to the National Assembly president Henry Ramos Allup that justified the request by the "reasonable doubts there are around the true origins of Maduro, because, to date, he has refused to show his birth certificate". The 62 petitioners, including former ambassador Diego Arria, businessman Marcel Granier and opposition former military, assuring that according to the Colombian constitution Maduro is "Colombian by birth" for being "the son of a Colombian mother and for having resided" in the neighboring country "during his childhood". The same year several former members of the Electoral Council sent an open letter to Tibisay Lucena requesting to "exhibit publicly, in a printed media of national circulation the documents that certify the strict compliance with Articles 41 and 227 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, that is to say, the birth certificate and the Certificate of Venezuelan Nationality by Birth of Nicolás Maduro Moros in order to verify if he is Venezuelan by birth and without another nationality". The document mentions that the current president of the CNE incurs in "a serious error, and even an irresponsibility, when she affirms that Maduro's nationality 'is not a motto of the National Electoral Council and the signatories also refer to the four different moments in which different politicians have awarded four different places of birth as official. "Diario Las Américas" claimed to have access to the birth inscriptions of Teresa de Jesús Moros, Maduro's mother, and of José Mario Moros, his uncle, both registered in the parish church of San Antonio of Cúcuta, Colombia.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Opposition deputies have assured that the birth certificate of Maduro must say that he is the son of a Colombian mother, which would represent the proof that confirms that the president has double nationality and that he cannot hold any office under Article 41 of the constitution. Deputy Dennis Fernández has headed a special commission that investigates the origins of the president and has declared that "Maduro's mother is a Colombian citizen" and that the Venezuelan head of State would also be Colombian. The researcher, historian and former deputy Walter Márquez declared months after the presidential elections that Maduro's mother was born in Colombia and not in Rubio, Táchira. Márquez has also declared that Maduro "was born in Bogotá, according to the verbal testimonies of people who knew him as a child in Colombia and the documentary research we did" and what "there are more than 10 witnesses that corroborate this information, five of them live in Bogotá".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 28 October 2016, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice issued a ruling stating that according to "incontrovertible" proofs it has "absolute certainty" that Maduro was born in Caracas, in the parish of La Candelaria, known then as the Libertador Department of the Federal District, on 23 November 1962. The ruling does not reproduce Maduro's birth certificate but it quotes a communication signed on 8 June by the Colombian Vice minister of foreign affairs, Patti Londoño Jaramillo, where it states that "no related information was found, nor civil registry of birth, nor citizenship card that allows to infer that president Nicolás Maduro Moros is a Colombian national". The Supreme Court warned the deputies and the Venezuelans that "sowing doubts about the origins of the president" may "lead to the corresponding criminal, civil, administrative and, if applicable, disciplinary consequences" for "attack against the State".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 11 January 2018, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile decreed the nullity of the 2013 presidential elections after lawyer Enrique Aristeguita Gramcko presented evidence about the presumed non-existence of ineligibility conditions of Nicolás Maduro to be elected and to hold the office of the presidency. Aristeguieta argued in the appeal that, under Article 96, Section B, of the Political Constitution of Colombia, Nicolás Maduro Moros, even in the unproven case of having been born in Venezuela, is "Colombian by birth" because he is the son of a Colombian mother and by having resided in that territory during his youth. The Constitutional Chamber admitted the demand and requested the presidency and the Electoral Council to send a certified copy of the president's birth certificate, in addition to his resignation from Colombian nationality. In March 2018 former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana made reference to the baptism certificate of Maduro's mother, noting that the disclosed document reiterates the Colombian origin of the mother of the president and that therefore Nicolás Maduro has Colombian citizenship.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro continued the practice of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, of denouncing alleged conspiracies against him or his government; in a period of fifteen months following his election, dozens of conspiracies, some supposedly linked to assassination and coup attempts, were reported by Maduro's government. In this same period, the number of attempted coups claimed by the Venezuelan government outnumbered all attempted and executed coups occurring worldwide in the same period. In TV program "La Hojilla", Mario Silva, a TV personality of the main state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión, stated in March 2015 that Maduro had received about 13 million psychological attacks.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Observers say that Maduro uses such conspiracy theories as a strategy to distract Venezuelans from the root causes of problems facing his government. According to American news publication "Foreign Policy", Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez, "relied on his considerable populist charm, conspiratorial rhetoric, and his prodigious talent for crafting excuses" to avoid backlash from troubles Venezuela was facing, with "Foreign Policy" further stating that for Maduro, "the appeal of reworking the magic that once saved his mentor is obvious". Andrés Cañizales, a researcher at the Andrés Bello Catholic University, said that as a result of the lack of reliable mainstream news broadcasting, most Venezuelans stay informed via social networking services, and fake news and internet hoaxes have a higher impact in Venezuela than in other countries.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In early 2015, the Maduro government accused the United States of attempting to overthrow him. The Venezuelan government performed elaborate actions to respond to such alleged attempts and to convince the public that its claims were true. The reactions included the arrest of Antonio Ledezma in February 2015, placing travel restrictions on American tourists and holding military marches and public exercises "for the first time in Venezuela's democratic history". After the United States ordered sanctions to be placed on seven Venezuelan officials for human rights violations, Maduro used anti-U.S. rhetoric to bump up his approval ratings. However, according to Venezuelan political scientist Isabella Picón, only about 15% of Venezuelans believed in the alleged coup attempt accusations at the time.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In 2016, Maduro again claimed that the United States was attempting to assist the opposition with a coup attempt. On 12 January 2016, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, threatened to invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter, an instrument used to defend democracy in the Americas when threatened, when opposition National Assembly member were barred from taking their seats by the Maduro-aligned Supreme Court. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, and the Human Rights Foundation called for the OAS to invoke the Democratic Charter. After more controversies and pursuing a recall on Maduro, on 2 May 2016, opposition members of the National Assembly met with OAS officials to ask for the body to implement the Democratic Charter. Two days later on 4 May, the Maduro government called for a meeting the next day with the OAS, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez stating that the United States and the OAS were attempting to overthrow Maduro. On 17 May 2016 in a national speech, Maduro called OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro "a traitor" and stated that he worked for the CIA. Almagro sent a letter rebuking Maduro, and refuting the claim.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The Trump administration described Maduro's government as a "dictatorship". When meeting with Latin American leaders during the seventy-second session of the UN General Assembly, President Donald Trump discussed possible United States military intervention in Venezuela, to which they all denied the offer. Maduro's son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, stated during the 5th Constituent Assembly of Venezuela session that if the United States were to attack Venezuela, "the rifles would arrive in New York, Mr. Trump, we would arrive and take the White House".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: According to Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, "a military action of the United States against Venezuela would be contrary to the movements of the Trump administration to retire troops from Syria or Afghanistan." John Bolton has declared that "all options are on the table" but has also said that "our objective is a peaceful transfer of power".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: During Nicolás Maduro's first tenure, 115 media outlets were shut down between 2013 and 2018 according to the National Union of Press Workers of Venezuela, including 41 printed means, 65 radio outlets and 9 television channels. and during the first seven months of 2019 the Press and Society Institute of Venezuela found at least 350 cases of violations of freedom of expression .


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Since the beginning of the presidential crisis, Venezuela has been exposed to frequent "information blackouts", periods without access to internet or other news services during important political events. Since January, the National Assembly and Guaido's speeches are regularly disrupted, television channels and radio programs have been censored and many journalists were illegally detained. The Venezuelan press workers union reported that in 2019, 40 journalists had been illegally detained as of 12 March. As of June 2019, journalists have been denied access to seven sessions of the National Assembly by the National Guard.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Most Venezuelan television channels are controlled by the state, and information unfavorable to the government is not covered completely. Newspapers and magazines are scarce, as most are unable to afford paper to print. The underfunded web infrastructure has led to slow Internet connection speeds. The information blackouts have promoted the creation of underground news coverage that is usually broadcast through social media and instant message services like WhatsApp. The dependence of Venezuelans on social media has also promoted the spread of disinformation and pro-Maduro propaganda.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Venezuela's rank on the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders has dropped 42 places since 2013.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has made a call to Maduro administration to reestablish TV and radio channels that have been closed, cease on the restrictions to Internet access, and to protect the rights of journalists.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: A Board of Independent Experts designated by the Organization of American States (OAS) published a 400-page report in 2018 that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela during Nicolás Maduro's presidency. The Board concluded that Maduro could be "responsible for dozens of murders, thousands of extra-judicial executions, more than 12,000 cases of arbitrary detentions, more than 290 cases of torture, attacks against the judiciary and a 'state-sanctioned humanitarian crisis' affecting hundreds of thousands of people".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In February 2018, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it would open preliminary probes into the alleged crimes against humanity performed by Venezuelan authorities. On 27 September 2018, six states parties to the Rome Statute: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, referred the situation in Venezuela since 12 February 2014 to the ICC, requesting the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to initiate an investigation on crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the territory. The following day, the Presidency assigned the situation to Pre-Trial Chamber I.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In March 2019 "The Wall Street Journal" reported in an article entitled "Maduro loses grip on Venezuela's poor, a vital source of his power" that barrios are turning against Maduro and that "many blame government brutality for the shift". Foro Penal said that 50 people—mostly in barrios—had been killed by security forces in only the first two months of the year, and 653 had been arrested for protesting or speaking against the government. Cofavic, a victims' rights group, estimated "3,717 extrajudicial killings in the past two years, mostly of suspected criminals in barrios".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In April 2019, the US Department of State alleged that Venezuela, "led by Nicolas Maduro, has consistently violated the human rights and dignity of its citizens" and "driven a once prosperous nation into economic ruin with his authoritarian rule" and that "Maduro's thugs have engaged in extra-judicial killings and torture, taken political prisoners, and severely restricted freedom of speech, all in a brutal effort to retain power." The State Department report highlighted abuse by the nation's security forces, including a number of deaths, the suspicious death of opposition politician Fernando Albán Salazar, the detention of Roberto Marrero, and repression of demonstrators during Venezuelan protests which left at least 40 dead in 2019.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The third and last report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed extrajudicial executions, torture, enforced disappearances and other right violations allegedly committed by Venezuelan security forces in the recent years. The High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet expressed her concerns for the "shockingly high" number of extrajudiciary killings and urged for the dissolution of the FAES. According to the report, 1569 cases of executions as consequence as a result of "resistance to authority" were registered by the Venezuelan authorities from 1 January to 19 March. Other 52 deaths that occurred during 2019 protests have been attributed to colectivos. The report also details how the Venezuelan government has "aimed at neutralising, repressing and criminalising political opponents and people critical of the government" since 2016.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: A report by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported in September 2019 that the poor communities in Venezuela no longer in support of Nicolás Maduro's government have witnessed arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions at the hands of Venezuelan police unit. The Venezuelan government has repeatedly declared that the victims were armed criminals who had died during "confrontations", but several witnesses or families of victims have challenged these claims and in many cases victims were last seen alive in police custody. Although Venezuelan authorities told the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that five FAES agents were convicted on charges including attempted murder for crimes committed in 2018, and that 388 agents were under investigation for crimes committed between 2017 and 2019, the OHCHR also reported that "[i]nstitutions responsible for the protection of human rights, such as the Attorney General’s Office, the courts and the Ombudsperson, usually do not conduct prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into human rights violations and other crimes committed by State actors, bring perpetrators to justice, and protect victims and witnesses." The government made three times more observations than the amount of recommendations included in the UN report, and at the same time included false or incomplete claims.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 14 December 2020, the Office of the Prosecutor released a report on the office's year activities, stating that it believed there was a "reasonable basis" to believe that "since at least April 2017, civilian authorities, members of the armed forces and pro-government individuals have committed the crimes against humanity." and that it expected to decide in 2021 whether to open an investigation or not. On 4 November 2021, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced the opening of an investigation regarding the situation in Venezuela.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 16 September 2021, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela released its second report on the country's situation, concluding that the independence of the Venezuelan justice system under Nicolás Maduro has been deeply eroded, to the extent of playing an important role in aiding state repression and perpetuating state impunity for human rights violations. The document identified frequent due process violations, including the use of pre-trial detention as a routine (rather than an exceptional measure) and judges sustaining detentions or charges based on manipulated or fabricated evidence, evidence obtained through illegal means, and evidence obtained through coercion or torture; in some of the reviewed cases, the judges also failed to protect torture victims, returning them to detentions centers were torture was denounced, "despite having heard victims, sometimes bearing visible injuries consistent with torture, make the allegation in court". The report also concluded that prosecutorial and judicial individuals at all levels witness or experienced external interference in decision-making, and that several reported receiving instructions either from the judicial or prosecutorial hierarchy or from political officials on how to decide cases.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Two nephews of Maduro's wife, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, were found guilty in a US court of conspiracy to import cocaine in November 2016, with some of their funds possibly assisting Maduro's presidential campaign in the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election and potentially for the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary elections, with the funds mainly used to "help their family stay in power". One informant stated that the two often flew out of Terminal 4 of Simon Bolivar Airport, a terminal reserved for the president.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: After Maduro's nephews were apprehended by the US Drug Enforcement Administration for the illegal distribution of cocaine on 10 November 2015, carrying diplomatic passports, Maduro posted a statement on Twitter criticizing "attacks and imperialist ambushes", saying "the Father land will continue on its path". Diosdado Cabello, a senior official in Maduro's government, was quoted as saying the arrests were a "kidnapping" by the United States.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Ex-Venezuelan vice president Tareck El Aissami, who served Maduro from 2017 to 2018 is under U.S sanctions for drug trafficking and aiding state terrorism. He is accused by the U.S State Department of aiding sanctioned Iran terrorist backed groups including Hezbollah and Quds Force. He is also accused of having ties with various illicit organizations including Los Zetas and Cartel of the Suns.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 18 May 2018, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury placed sanctions in effect against high-level official Diosdado Cabello. OFAC stated that Cabello and others used their power within the Bolivarian government "to personally profit from extortion, money laundering, and embezzlement", with Cabello allegedly directing drug trafficking activities with Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami while dividing drug profits with President Nicolás Maduro.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 26 March 2020, the United States Department of Justice charged Maduro and other Venezuelan officials and some Colombian former FARC members, for what William Barr described as "narco-terrorism": the shipping of cocaine to the US to wage a health war on US citizens. According to Barr, Venezuelan leaders and the FARC faction organised an "air bridge" from a Venezuelan airbase transporting cocaine to Central America and a sea route to the Caribbean. The US government offered $15 million for any information that would lead to his arrest.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: As foreign minister, during a tenth anniversary gathering commemorating the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt going into the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election, Maduro called opposition members "snobs" and "little faggots."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: During the presidential campaign of 2013, Maduro used anti-gay attacks as a political weapon, calling representatives of the opposition "faggots". Maduro used anti-gay speech toward his opponent Henrique Capriles calling him a "little princess" and saying "I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!"


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In August 2017, Luisa Ortega Díaz, Chief Prosecutor of Venezuela from 2007 until her sacking in August 2017, accused Maduro of profiting from the shortages in Venezuela. The government-operated Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP), which provides food to impoverished Venezuelans, made contracts with Group Grand Limited, a company that Ortega said was "presumably owned by Nicolás Maduro" through front-men Rodolfo Reyes, Álvaro Uguedo Vargas and Alex Saab. Group Grand Limited, a Mexican entity, was paid by the Venezuelan government for basic foods which it supplied to CLAP. Maduro accused Ortega of working with the United States to damage his government.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: An April 2019 communication from the United States Department of State highlighted a 2017 National Assembly investigation finding that the government paid US$42 for food that cost under US$13, and that "Maduro's inner circle kept the difference, which totaled more than $200 million dollars in at least one case", adding that food boxes were "distributed in exchange for votes". On 18 October 2018, Mexican prosecutors accused the Venezuelan government and Mexican individuals of buying poor-quality food products for CLAP and exporting them to Venezuela to double their value for sale.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: During the Venezuelan presidential crisis, Venezuelan National Assembly president Juan Guaidó said that the Maduro government had plans to steal for humanitarian purposes the products that entered the country, including plans to distribute these products through the government's food-distribution program CLAP.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: While Venezuelans were affected by hunger and shortages, Maduro and his government officials publicly shared images of themselves eating luxurious meals, images that were met with displeasure by Venezuelans. Despite the majority of Venezuelans losing weight due to hunger, members of the Maduro's administration appeared to gain weight.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In November 2017, while giving a lengthy, live "cadena" broadcast, Maduro, unaware he was still being filmed, pulled out an empanada from his desk and began eating it. This occurred amid controversy over Maduro's gaining weight during the nationwide food and medicine shortage; with many on social media criticizing the publicly broadcast incident.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In September 2018, Maduro ate at a Nusret Gökçe's, a luxurious Istanbul restaurant. Gökçe, popularly known as "Salt Bae", served Maduro and his wife a meat meal, offering also a personalized shirt and a box of cigars with Maduro's name engraved upon it. The incident received international criticism and "The Wall Street Journal" also reported that the incident left poor Venezuelans incensed.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In December 2018, videos and pictures were leaked showing a glamorous Christmas party that counted with an expensive feast, including French wine, taking place in the seat of the pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice. The images received considerable backlash from social networks, criticizing the costs of the party during the grave economic crisis in the country and the hypocrisy of Maduro's government.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In an investigative interview with Euzenando Prazeres de Azevedo, president of Constructora Odebrecht in Venezuela, the executive revealed how Odebrecht paid $35 million to fund Maduro's 2013 presidential campaign if Odebrecht projects would be prioritized in Venezuela. Americo Mata, Maduro's campaign manager, initially asked for $50 million for Maduro, though the final $35 million was settled.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro was sentenced to 18 years and 3 months in prison on 15 August 2018 by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile, with the exiled high court stating "there is enough evidence to establish the guilt ... [of] corruption and legitimation of capital". The Organization of American States Secretary General, Luis Almagro, supported the verdict and asked for the Venezuelan National Assembly to recognize the ruling of the Supreme Tribunal in exile.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: The US State Department issued a fact sheet stating that Maduro's most serious corruption involved embezzlement in which "a European bank accepted exorbitant commissions to process approximately $2 billion in transactions related to Venezuelan third–party money launderers, shell companies, and complex financial products to siphon off funds from PdVSA". The State Department also alleges that Maduro expelled authorized foreign companies from the mining sector to allow officials to exploit Venezuela's resources for their own gain, using unregulated miners under the control of Venezuela's armed forces.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Thirteen government officials were sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury due to their involvement with the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election. Two months later, the Canadian government sanctioned members of the Maduro government, including Maduro, preventing Canadian nationals from participating in property and financial deals with him due to the rupture of Venezuela's constitutional order.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: After the Constituent Assembly election, the United States sanctioned Maduro on 31 July 2017, making him the fourth foreign head of state to be sanctioned by the United States after Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin stating "Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people". Maduro fired back at the sanctions during his victory speech saying "I don't obey imperial orders. I'm against the Ku Klux Klan that governs the White House, and I'm proud to feel that way."


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: On 29 March 2018, Maduro was sanctioned by the Panamanian government for his alleged involvement with "money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro is also banned from entering Colombia. The Colombian government maintains a list of people banned from entering Colombia or subject to expulsion; as of January 2019, the list had 200 people with a "close relationship and support for the Nicolás Maduro regime".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Datanálisis, a "respected pollster in Venezuela" according to "The Wall Street Journal", in a 4 March 2019 poll found Guaidó's approval at 61%, and Maduro's at all-time low of 14%. Guaidó would win 77% in an election to Maduro's 23%.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: "The Wall Street Journal" reported that barrios are turning against Maduro in "a shift born of economic misery and police violence". Pollster Datanálisis found that, among the poorest 20% of Venezuelans, Maduro's support had fallen to 18% in February 2019 from 40% two years earlier.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Surveys between 30 January and 1 February 2019 by Meganálisis recorded that 4.1% of Venezuelans recognized Maduro as president, 11.2% were undecided, and 84.6% of respondents recognized Guaidó as interim president. The study of 1,030 Venezuelans was conducted in 16 states and 32 cities.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Hinterlaces—a pollster headed by Constituent National Assembly member and described as pro-Maduro—ran a poll from 21 January to 2 February 2019 that found that 57% of Venezuelans recognized Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, 32% recognized Guaidó, and 11% were unsure, according to the "Culture of Peace News Network".


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In September 2018, Meganálisis polls found that 84.6% of Venezuelans surveyed wanted Maduro and his government to be removed from power.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Polls following the suspension of the recall movement gathered from late-October through November 2016 showed that the majority of Venezuelans believed that Maduro's government had developed into a dictatorship. One Venebarametro poll found that 61.4% found that Maduro had become a dictator, while in a poll taken by Keller and Associates, 63% of those questioned thought that Maduro was a dictator.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In November 2014, Datanálisis polls indicated that more than 66% of Venezuelans believed that Maduro should not finish his six-year term, with government supporters representing more than 25% of those believing that Maduro should resign. In March and April 2015, Maduro saw a small increase in approval after initiating a campaign of anti-US rhetoric following the sanctioning of seven officials accused by the United States of participating in human rights violations.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: In October 2013, Maduro's approval rating stood between 45% and 50% with Reuters stating that it was possibly due to Hugo Chávez's endorsement. One year later in October 2014, Maduro's approval rating was at 24.5% according to Datanálisis.


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Nicolás Maduro won the second presidential election after the death of Hugo Chávez, with 50.61% of the votes against the opposition's candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski who had 49.12% of the votes. The Democratic Unity Roundtable contested his election as fraud and as a violation of the constitution. However, the Supreme Court of Venezuela ruled that under Venezuela's Constitution, Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president and was invested as such by the Venezuelan National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional).


title: Nicolás Maduro

text: Maduro was declared as the winner of the 2018 election with 67.8% of the vote. The result was denounced as fraudulent by most neighboring countries, including Argentina, Peña Nieto's Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Canada and the United States, as well as organizations such as the European Union, and the Organization of American States, but recognized as legitimate by other neighboring countries such as López Obrador's Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Suriname, Nicaragua and some other ALBA countries, along with South Africa, China, Russia, North Korea, and Turkey.


title: New Testament

text: The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as sacred scripture by Christians.


title: New Testament

text: The New Testament is a collection of Christian texts originally written in the Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different Christian denominations, the 27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity since at least Late Antiquity. Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books:


title: New Testament

text: The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria, dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided the canon of the Old Testament, which included the deuterocanonical books.


title: New Testament

text: There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the latest New Testament texts. John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Many other scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman and Stephen L. Harris, date some New Testament texts much later than this; Richard Pervo dated Luke–Acts to c. 115 AD, and David Trobisch places Acts in the mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first New Testament canon. The "New Oxford Annotated Bible" states, "Scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching."


title: New Testament

text: The word "testament" in the expression "New Testament" refers to a new covenant that Christians believe completes or fulfils the Mosaic covenant (the old covenant)


title: New Testament

text: that Yahweh (the national God of Israel) made with the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses, described in the books of the Old Testament. Christians traditionally view this new covenant as being prophesied in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Jeremiah:


title: New Testament

text: The word "covenant" means 'agreement' (from Latin "con-venio" 'to agree' lit. 'to come together'): the use of the word "testament", which describes the different idea of written instructions for inheritance after death, to refer to the covenant with Israel in the Old Testament, is foreign to the original Hebrew word "brit" (בְּרִית) describing it, which only means 'alliance, covenant, pact' and never 'inheritance instructions after death'. This use comes from the transcription of Latin "testamentum" 'will (left after death)', a literal translation of Greek "diatheke" (διαθήκη) 'will (left after death)', which is the word used to translate Hebrew "brit" in the Septuagint.


title: New Testament

text: The choice of this word "diatheke", by the Jewish translators of the Septuagint in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE, has been understood in Christian theology to imply a reinterpreted view of the Old Testament covenant with Israel as of a 'will left after death' (the death of Jesus) and has generated considerable attention from biblical scholars and theologians: in contrast to the Jewish usage where "brit" was the usual Hebrew word used to refer to pacts, alliances and covenants in general, like a common pact between two individuals, and to the one between God and Israel in particular, in the Greek world "diatheke" was virtually never used to refer to an alliance or covenant (one exception is noted in a passage from Aristophanes) and referred instead to a will left after the death of a person. There is scholarly debate as to the reason why the translators of the Septuagint chose the term "diatheke" to translate Hebrew "brit", instead of another Greek word generally used to refer to an alliance or covenant.


title: New Testament

text: The use of the phrase "New Testament" (Koine Greek: , ) to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian in his work "Against Praxeas". Irenaeus uses the phrase "New Testament" several times, but does not use it in reference to any written text. In "Against Marcion", written c. 208 AD, Tertullian writes of:


title: New Testament

text: By the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin "Institutiones Divinae" ("Divine Institutes"):


title: New Testament

text: Eusebius describes the collection of Christian writings as "covenanted" (ἐνδιαθήκη) books in "Hist. Eccl." 3.3.1–7; 3.25.3; 5.8.1; 6.25.1.


title: New Testament

text: Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (the gospel of Mark in the original text ends with the empty tomb and has no account of the post-resurrection appearances, but the emptiness of the tomb implies a resurrection). The word "gospel" derives from the Old English "gōd-spell" (rarely "godspel"), meaning "good news" or "glad tidings". Its Hebrew equivalent being "besorah" (בְּשׂוֹרָה). The gospel was considered the "good news" of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, the central Christian message. Gospel is a calque (word-for-word translation) of the Greek word , "euangelion" ("eu-" "good", "-angelion" "message"). They were written between approximately 70 and 100 AD, and were the end-products of a long process of development; all are anonymous, and almost certainly none are the work of eyewitnesses.


title: New Testament

text: Starting in the late second century, the four narrative accounts of the life and work of Jesus Christ have been referred to as "The Gospel of ..." or "The Gospel according to ..." followed by the name of the supposed author. The first author to explicitly name the canonical gospels is Irenaeus of Lyon, who promoted the four canonical gospels in his book "Against Heresies", written around 180. Whatever these early ascriptions may imply about the sources behind or the perception of these gospels, they are anonymous compositions.


title: New Testament

text: The first three gospels listed above are classified as the Synoptic Gospels. They contain similar accounts of the events in Jesus's life and his teaching, due to their literary interdependence. The Gospel of John is structured differently and includes stories of several miracles of Jesus and sayings not found in the other three.


title: New Testament

text: These four gospels that were eventually included in the New Testament were only a few among many other early Christian gospels. The existence of such texts is even mentioned at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. Other early Christian gospels, such as the so-called "Jewish-Christian Gospels" or the Gospel of Thomas, also offer both a window into the context of early Christianity and may provide some assistance in the reconstruction of the historical Jesus.


title: New Testament

text: The Acts of the Apostles is a narrative of the apostles' ministry and activity after Christ's death and resurrection, from which point it resumes and functions as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. Examining style, phraseology, and other evidence, modern scholarship generally concludes that Acts and the Gospel of Luke share the same author, referred to as Luke–Acts. Luke–Acts does not name its author. Church tradition identified him as Luke the Evangelist, the companion of Paul, but the majority of scholars reject this due to the many differences between Acts and the authentic Pauline letters. The most probable date of composition is around 80–100 AD, although some scholars date it significantly later, and there is evidence that it was still being substantially revised well into the 2nd century.


title: New Testament

text: The epistles of the New Testament are considered by Christians to be divinely inspired and holy letters, written by the apostles and disciples of Christ, to either local congregations with specific needs, or to New Covenant Christians in general, scattered about; or "catholic epistles."


title: New Testament

text: The Pauline letters are the thirteen New Testament books that present Paul the Apostle as their author. Paul's authorship of six of the letters is disputed. Four are thought by most modern scholars to be pseudepigraphic, i.e., not actually written by Paul even if attributed to him within the letters themselves. Opinion is more divided on the other two disputed letters (2 Thessalonians and Colossians). These letters were written to Christian communities in specific cities or geographical regions, often to address issues faced by that particular community. Prominent themes include the relationship both to broader "pagan" society, to Judaism, and to other Christians.


title: New Testament

text: The last four Pauline letters in the New Testament are addressed to individual persons. They include the following:


title: New Testament

text: All of the above except for Philemon are known as the pastoral epistles. They are addressed to individuals charged with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. They often address different concerns to those of the preceding epistles. These letters are believed by many to be pseudepigraphic. Some scholars (e.g., Bill Mounce, Ben Witherington, R.C. Sproul) will argue that the letters are genuinely Pauline, or at least written under Paul's supervision.


title: New Testament

text: The Epistle to the Hebrews addresses a Jewish audience who had come to believe that Jesus was the Anointed One (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ—transliterated in English as "Moshiach", or "Messiah"; Greek: Χριστός—transliterated in English as "Christos", for "Christ") who was predicted in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. The author discusses the superiority of the new covenant and the ministry of Jesus, to the Mosaic Law Covenant and urges the readers in the practical implications of this conviction through the end of the epistle.


title: New Testament

text: The book has been widely accepted by the Christian church as inspired by God and thus authoritative, despite the acknowledgment of uncertainties about who its human author was. Regarding authorship, although the Epistle to the Hebrews does not internally claim to have been written by the Apostle Paul, some similarities in wordings to some of the Pauline Epistles have been noted and inferred. In antiquity, some began to ascribe it to Paul in an attempt to provide the anonymous work an explicit apostolic pedigree.


title: New Testament

text: In the 4th century, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo supported Paul's authorship. The Church largely agreed to include Hebrews as the fourteenth letter of Paul, and affirmed this authorship until the Reformation. The letter to the Hebrews had difficulty in being accepted as part of the Christian canon because of its anonymity. As early as the 3rd century, Origen wrote of the letter, "Men of old have handed it down as Paul's, but who wrote the Epistle God only knows."


title: New Testament

text: Contemporary scholars often reject Pauline authorship for the epistle to the Hebrews, based on its distinctive style and theology, which are considered to set it apart from Paul's writings.


title: New Testament

text: The Catholic epistles (or "general epistles") consist of both letters and treatises in the form of letters written to the church at large. The term "catholic" (Greek: καθολική, "katholikē"), used to describe these letters in the oldest manuscripts containing them, here simply means "general" or "universal", and does not imply that they are not accepted as canonical by non-Catholic Christians. The authorship of a number of these is disputed.


title: New Testament

text: The final book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John. In the New Testament canon, it is considered prophetical or apocalyptic literature. Its authorship has been attributed either to John the Apostle (in which case it is often thought that John the Apostle is John the Evangelist, i.e. author of the Gospel of John) or to another John designated "John of Patmos" after the island where the text says the revelation was received (1:9). Some ascribe the writership date as AD, and others at around 68 AD. The work opens with letters to seven local congregations of Asia Minor and thereafter takes the form of an apocalypse, a "revealing" of divine prophecy and mysteries, a literary genre popular in ancient Judaism and Christianity.


title: New Testament

text: The order in which the books of the New Testament appear differs between some collections and ecclesiastical traditions. In the Latin West, prior to the Vulgate (an early 5th-century Latin version of the Bible), the four Gospels were arranged in the following order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark. The Syriac Peshitta places the major Catholic epistles (James, 1 Peter, and 1 John) immediately after Acts and before the Pauline epistles.


title: New Testament

text: The order of an early edition of the letters of Paul is based on the size of the letters: longest to shortest, though keeping 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians together. The Pastoral epistles were apparently not part of the "Corpus Paulinum" in which this order originated and were later inserted after 2 Thessalonians and before Philemon. Hebrews was variously incorporated into the "Corpus Paulinum" either after 2 Thessalonians, after Philemon (i.e. at the very end), or after Romans.


title: New Testament

text: Luther's canon, found in the 16th-century Luther Bible, continues to place Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse (Revelation) last. This reflects the thoughts of the Reformer Martin Luther on the canonicity of these books.


title: New Testament

text: The books that eventually found a permanent place in the New Testament were not the only works of Christian literature produced in the earliest Christian centuries. The long process of canonization began early, sometimes with tacit reception of traditional texts, sometimes with explicit selection or rejection of particular texts as either acceptable or unacceptable for use in a given context (e.g., not all texts that were acceptable for private use were considered appropriate for use in the liturgy).


title: New Testament

text: Over the course of history, those works of early Christian literature that survived but that did not become part of the New Testament have been variously grouped by theologians and scholars. Drawing upon, though redefining, an older term used in early Christianity and among Protestants when referring to those books found in the Christian Old Testament although not in the Hebrew Bible, modern scholars began to refer to these works of early Christian literature not included in the New Testament as "apocryphal", by which was meant non-canonical.


title: New Testament

text: Collected editions of these works were then referred to as the "New Testament apocrypha". Typically excluded from such published collections are the following groups of works: The Apostolic Fathers, the 2nd-century Christian apologists, the Alexandrians, Tertullian, Methodius of Olympus, Novatian, Cyprian, martyrdoms, and the Desert Fathers. Almost all other Christian literature from the period, and sometimes including works composed well into Late Antiquity, are relegated to the so-called New Testament apocrypha.


title: New Testament

text: Although not considered to be inspired by God, these "apocryphal" works were produced in the same ancient context and often using the same language as those books that would eventually form the New Testament. Some of these later works are dependent (either directly or indirectly) upon books that would later come to be in the New Testament or upon the ideas expressed in them. There is even an example of a pseudepigraphical letter composed under the guise of a presumably lost letter of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Laodiceans.


title: New Testament

text: It is believed the books of the New Testament were all or nearly all written by Jewish Christians—that is, Jewish disciples of Christ, who lived in the Roman Empire, and under Roman occupation. The author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts is frequently thought of as an exception; scholars are divided as to whether he was a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew. A few scholars identify the author of the Gospel of Mark as probably a Gentile, and similarly for the Gospel of Matthew, though most assert Jewish-Christian authorship.


title: New Testament

text: However, more recently the above understanding has been challenged by the publication of evidence showing only educated elites after the Jewish War would have been capable of producing the prose found in the Gospels.


title: New Testament

text: Authorship of the Gospels remains divided among both evangelical and critical scholars. The names of each Gospel stems from church tradition, and yet the authors of the Gospels do not identify themselves in their respective texts. All four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are anonymous works. The Gospel of John claims to be based on eyewitness testimony from the Disciple whom Jesus loved, but never names this character. According to Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina, none of the authors of the Gospels were eyewitnesses or even explicitly claimed to be eyewitnesses. Ehrman has argued for a scholarly consensus that many New Testament books were not written by the individuals whose names are attached to them. Scholarly opinion is that names were fixed to the gospels by the mid second century AD. Many scholars believe that none of the gospels were written in the region of Palestine.


title: New Testament

text: Christian tradition identifies John the Apostle with John the Evangelist, the supposed author of the Gospel of John. Traditionalists tend to support the idea that the writer of the Gospel of John himself claimed to be an eyewitness in their commentaries of John 21:24 and therefore the gospel was written by an eyewitness. This idea is rejected by the majority of modern scholars.


title: New Testament

text: Most scholars hold to the two-source hypothesis, which posits that the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written. On this view, the authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke used as sources the Gospel of Mark and a hypothetical Q document to write their individual gospel accounts. These three gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels, because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes in exactly the same wording. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, by using a different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Scholars hold that these books constituted two-halves of a single work, Luke–Acts.


title: New Testament

text: The same author appears to have written the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, and most refer to them as the Lucan texts. The most direct evidence comes from the prefaces of each book; both were addressed to Theophilus, and the preface to the Acts of the Apostles references "my former book" about the ministry of Jesus. Furthermore, there are linguistic and theological similarities between the two works, suggesting that they have a common author.


title: New Testament

text: The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus. Seven letters are generally classified as "undisputed", expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are the work of Paul: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus.


title: New Testament

text: The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is, despite unlikely Pauline authorship, often functionally grouped with these thirteen to form a corpus of fourteen "Pauline" epistles.


title: New Testament

text: While many scholars uphold the traditional view, some question whether the first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles", are authentic letters of Paul. As for the latter three, the "Pastoral epistles", some scholars uphold the traditional view of these as the genuine writings of the Apostle Paul; most regard them as pseudepigrapha.


title: New Testament

text: One might refer to the Epistle to the Laodiceans and the Third Epistle to the Corinthians as examples of works identified as pseudonymous. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary scholars generally reject Pauline authorship.


title: New Testament

text: The epistles all share common themes, emphasis, vocabulary and style; they exhibit a uniformity of doctrine concerning the Mosaic Law, Jesus, faith, and various other issues. All of these letters easily fit into the chronology of Paul's journeys depicted in Acts of the Apostles.


title: New Testament

text: The author of the Epistle of James identifies himself in the opening verse as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". From the middle of the 3rd century, patristic authors cited the "Epistle" as written by James the Just. Ancient and modern scholars have always been divided on the issue of authorship. Many consider the epistle to be written in the late 1st or early 2nd centuries.


title: New Testament

text: The author of the First Epistle of Peter identifies himself in the opening verse as "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ", and the view that the epistle was written by St. Peter is attested to by a number of Church Fathers: Irenaeus (140–203), Tertullian (150–222), Clement of Alexandria (155–215) and Origen of Alexandria (185–253). Unlike The Second Epistle of Peter, the authorship of which was debated in antiquity, there was little debate about Peter's authorship of this first epistle until the 18th century. Although 2 Peter internally purports to be a work of the apostle, many biblical scholars have concluded that Peter is not the author. For an early date and (usually) for a defense of the Apostle Peter's authorship see Kruger, Zahn, Spitta, Bigg, and Green.


title: New Testament

text: The Epistle of Jude title is written as follows: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James". The debate has continued over the author's identity as the apostle, the brother of Jesus, both, or neither.


title: New Testament

text: The Gospel of John, the three Johannine epistles, and the Book of Revelation, exhibit marked similarities, although more so between the gospel and the epistles (especially the gospel and 1 John) than between those and Revelation. Most scholars therefore treat the five as a single corpus of Johannine literature, albeit not from the same author.


title: New Testament

text: The gospel went through two or three "editions" before reaching its current form around AD 90–110. It speaks of an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions, but does not say specifically that he is its author; Christian tradition identifies this disciple as the apostle John, but while this idea still has supporters, for a variety of reasons the majority of modern scholars have abandoned it or hold it only tenuously. It is significantly different from the synoptic gospels, with major variations in material, theological emphasis, chronology, and literary style, sometimes amounting to contradictions.