Watch this transformation.
Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro posed for a jailhouse picture sporting a peace sign and a $40 Casio watch — after he sported $40,000 luxury Swiss timepieces while in power.
The slimmed-down socialist was seen with what appeared to be a G-Shock around his wrist in newly released photographs from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center — a tried and true timepiece that’s available from the jail’s commissary for $40.30, BOP records show.
But Maduro is used to having much more elegant – and expensive – time pieces.
He was photographed wearing a limited-edition $85,000 Hublot watch in December 2024, according to Watches of Espionage.
The dictator was also seen rocking a different $40,000 watch from the Swiss atelier earlier that year at a summit, an alleged gift from legendary Argentinian soccer star and supporter Diego Maradona, the site reported.
While Maduro has been seen wearing much more down-market timepieces, including Citizens, his taste for the extravagant continued to get the better of him.
US Special Forces captured the socialist and his wife Cilia Flores at their heavily guarded home in Caracas during a January 3 nighttime raid ordered by President Trump.
They were brought to New York, where they were indicted on charges of using their leadership positions to work with drug cartels to ship thousands of tons of cocaine into the US between 1999 and 2025.
They have both pleaded not guilty.
Last month, prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office and Maduro’s defense lawyers confirmed his trial will start in June 2027.
Shortly after his arrest, Maduro claimed he was destitute and said that the Venezuelan government should foot the bill for his legal defense.
However, the Trump administration said last year it had seized some $700 million from the ex-dictator — including mansions, cars, planes and jewelry.
Among the properties were a mansion in the Dominican Republic, a horse farm and a lux property in Florida.
Critics of the regime have long said he ran a system of patronage that allowed the elites to live the high life while the quality of living in the country plummeted and inflation soared.
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