The first photo is always crucial, and that was also the case with the first photo of imprisoned Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In the image that President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday morning, we see a gray-haired Maduro in a gray sweatsuit, wearing a black ski goggle-like blindfold and holding a crumpled bottle of water in his hands. Is this the dreaded dictator?
If this image is meant to convey anything, it is that of a helpless vanquished. No wonder that associations with previous, similar images emerged immediately after this image. Some commentators were reminded of the capture of Saddam Hussein by US soldiers in Iraq in 2003, although the image was a little more intense: the Iraqi dictator was found in a hole in the ground at the time and was photographed with a wild look and beard in the first photos.
Only: the similarities between Hussein and Maduro also caused skepticism in recent days. Because: if the images are so similar, is this Maduro photo real, is it not a staging, or perhaps even an AI image? In the first hours after the news of the capture, AI images of the capture had also appeared on social media, including on FaceBook, Instagram and X, and had already been shared millions of times before Trump came up with ‘his’ first, real image.
The bitter irony: these AI photos also look like the later real photo. For example, an AI image of Maduro circulated in white pajamas in an airplane hold, flanked by US soldiers. The suggestion was the same as the photo of Maduro in his jogging suit: the US action must have been so quick that the dictator had no time to change clothes – and at the same time, this AI image in pajamas also gives the captured ruler something of a helpless appearance.
Hunched posture
The real and AI images therefore have the same ingredients, and that is no coincidence. After all, such a photo, even if real, is by definition a staging; it is a choice of the victor which image of the vanquished is presented, which clothing, look and attitude are shown. The image is a message: the weak jogging suit versus the sturdy uniforms of the soldiers, helpless confusion versus decisive action, ferality versus the suggestion of .
Manuel Noriega captured in 1989.
Photo AFP
Older viewers may even have recalled the 1989 capture of General Manuel Noriega in Panama, which the most famous image is also striking resembles that of Maduro and Saddam. Noriega is standing between two US agents, one with the clear logo of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in view, while Noriega has her head slightly bowed. We saw the first image of Maduro upon his arrival in New York on Sunday Maduro also crouched between US DEA agentsalthough that attitude was simply because he just stepped out of a helicopter.
Maduro is escorted from the helicopter by DEA agents upon arrival in New York.
REUTERS
The pattern in these images of American military actions is clear – and they were not chosen for nothing, especially because all three were actions that were highly controversial internationally. With the photos of the vanquished, Trump wanted to show that US action is proud, decisive and righteous, while the former dictator must be stripped of his power, so that his supporters lose their admiration and his opponents their fear.
Julius Caesar
Of course, the importance of such staging has become increasingly important in the current visual culture of AI and social media. But that does not alter the fact that the depiction of vanquished opponents has a long tradition – and that history also makes its great danger clear.
You could call the patriarch of the staging of the conquered Julius Caesar. Caesar liked to hold triumphal processions often, in which the visible humiliation of conquered enemies was a regular component. During one of these triumphal marches he brought the conquered and neglected Gallic leader out of the dungeon and had him dragged behind him – later he was strangled after a tribunal. The aim was the public humiliation of the conquered, the visual underlining of Caesar’s victory over all of Gaul. But in terms of historical symbolism, Caesar ultimately drew the short straw, because France has been dealing with the humiliation of Vercingetorix since the 19th century. paintings and monuments turned into a symbol of the indomitability of the Gallic freedom fighter – an effective motif down to the Asterixcomics of today.
In the 19th century, the French turned Vercingetorix’s defeat by Caesar into a national heroic epic. Lionel Royer, Vercingetorix jette ses armes aux pieds de Jules César1899.
That is the danger when staging a victory: if historical circumstances change again – and they almost always do – then the vanquished can bend the story and images to his own advantage. President Barack Obama was aware of this when he did in 2011 the tense faces of the victors in the White House and showed Osama bin Laden’s dingy hideout to the world, but not the bin Laden himself, who was killed by the US action – so as not to make him a martyr.
Trump wants to score faster, and posted the first photo on his own channel online. Maybe Maduro had this sweatsuit – which is now considered one Nike has been identified – already on, or perhaps he only got it after the capture of American soldiers. The fact is: with his later court images (thumbs up) Maduro is again trying to shape the image to his own advantage starting this week. Both men know: nothing should be left to chance when staging the vanquished.
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