2013: President Maduro Faced “Birther” Claims of Being Born in Columbia

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.

In April 2013, Nicolas Maduro was certified by the National Electoral Council (CNE) as the winner of the Presidential election. The Supreme Court dismissed calls from the losing candidate, Henrique Capriles, to require Maduro to publicly present his birth certificate. [1] Capriles had questioned Maduro’s nationality, arguing that he may have been born in Columbia.

The accusation that Maduro was born in Columbia was first made just before the April 2013 election by Miami’s El Nuevo Herald. [2] The claim was that Maduro, whose mother is Columbian, was born in the Columbian border town of Cucuta. The story resurfaced in June 2013 after Spanish daily El Pais ran a story titled “Where was Maduro Born?” On July 29, Guillermo Cochez, the former Panamanian ambassador to the OAS, presented an alleged birth certificate to the Columbian broadcaster NTN24 to support a claim that Maduro was born on November 20, 1961 in Cucuta. [3]

 On July 30, Columbian authorities declared Cochez’s document a fake, stating that the official who allegedly signed it had retired two years prior. Other irregularities included: an alleged identification number for Maduro actually belonged to a different person, the alleged document did not appear in Columbia’s official identity database and included two witnesses who also did not appear in the identification records. There were no signatures or stamps on the alleged birth certificate. [3]

On October 10 in a television interview, the President of the CNE, Tibsay Lucena, showed a copy of the birth certificate book for a local clinic in the Caracas parish of La Candelaria which lists Nicolas Maduro’s birth on November 23, 1962.[4]  Lucena pointed out that the CNE had determined that Maduro met all the legal requirements for the Presidency before the April election and no challenge had been made about Maduro.

Capriles insisted “that there is a debate even if the Columbian registry says they’re false.” [5] Capriles supporters presented a letter to the European Union asking them to scrutinize Maduro’s nationality and a letter at the American Embassy, hoping to get support from President Obama. Bloomberg published a comment on this request: [5]

·        “The idea that Obama would somehow prod a Latin American President to release his birth certificate shows how clueless Venezuela’s opposition politicians can be.”

The “birther” issue resurfaced in 2016. As the Associated Press wrote:[6]

·        “A birther debate is heating up in Venezuela as President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents seek to push the embattled socialist leader from office at any cost. Like the birther controversy surrounding Barack Obama in the US, the lack of any evidence hasn’t stopped his opponents from speculating.”

The Supreme Court ruled on October 28, 2016 that “incontrovertible evidence proves with absolute certainty that Nicolas Maduro was born in the city of Caracas.” [7]



1.      CNN, Venezuelan High Court Upholds Election, Rejects “Birthers”, August 7, 2013.

2.      Venezuelanalysis, Opposition Reissues Claim Maduro “Isn’t Venezuelan,” June 28, 2013.

3.      Alba Ciudad, President Maduro’s alleged Columbian birth certificate is a hoax by Guillermo Cochez, July 30, 2013.

4.      Alba Ciudad, The rector of the National Electoral Council Showed a Copy of President’ Nicolas Maduro’s birth Certificate, 10/10/2013

5.      Gallegos, Raul, Venezuela’s Turn for a Birther Conspiracy, Bloomberg, August 2, 2013.

6.      Associated Press, Venezuela: Pres. Maduro opponents Fan Flames of Birther Debate, October 25, 2016.

7.      Venezuelanalysis, Venezuelan Supreme Court: Maduro is not Columbian, November 1, 2016

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