The United States military struck Venezuela early Saturday morning and captured President Nicolás Maduro. Trump announced the operation on Truth Social at 1:00 AM Eastern, saying Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized and flown out of the country. Maduro is aboard the USS Iwo Jima heading to New York to face narco-terrorism charges in Manhattan federal court, likely on Monday.
Trump watched the raid unfold in real-time from Mar-a-Lago. “It was literally like I was watching a television show,” he told Fox News. He described how Delta Force operators “bum rushed” Maduro at his residence inside Fort Tiuna, Venezuela’s main military base, breaking through steel doors “in a matter of seconds.” Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernandez told the Associated Press that Maduro and his wife were dragged from their bedroom. “That’s where they bombed,” he said. “They carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady.”
The operation lasted less than 30 minutes. At least seven explosions hit northern Venezuela starting around 2 AM local time, targeting Fuerte Tiuna, Francisco de Miranda Air Base, La Carlota Airport, and facilities in Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira states. Residents reported seeing multiple Chinook helicopters from the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flying over Caracas. Parts of the city lost power. Oil facilities were not hit. Some American troops were injured and a helicopter was hit during the raid, but no Americans were killed.
Helicopters took the couple to the USS Iwo Jima. “The helicopters took them out, and they went by helicopter in a nice flight—I’m sure they loved it,” Trump said. “But they’ve killed a lot of people.”
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez went on state television and admitted the government has lost track of its leader. “We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” she said. “We demand proof of life.” She said “officials, soldiers and civilians” were killed in the strikes but gave no numbers. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López vowed Venezuela would “not negotiate, not give up.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism, cocaine importation, and weapons possession charges. “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she said. Maduro has been under US indictment since 2020 on narco-terrorism charges, with the State Department offering $50 million for his capture. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Senator Mike Lee that the strikes were “deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant” and that he “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
Trump spoke to Maduro a week ago. “Basically I said, you have to give up. You have to surrender,” Trump told Fox News. Vice President JD Vance said Trump offered Maduro “multiple off-ramps” before executing the operation, but made clear “the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.” Two days before the strike, Maduro went on television offering to negotiate a drug trafficking deal with Washington. It was too late.
Planning for Saturday’s raid began in mid-December after months of escalating pressure. Since September, US forces killed more than 115 people in strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. The Navy blockaded Venezuelan oil tankers starting December 17. The CIA hit a dock facility inside Venezuela on Christmas Eve. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group and roughly 15,000 troops deployed to the region under Operation Southern Spear. Military officials discussed conducting the mission on Christmas Day, but airstrikes in Nigeria against ISIS took precedence. The operation was scheduled for four days ago but weather delayed it. “We were going to do this four days ago but the weather was not perfect,” Trump said. “The weather has to be perfect. All of a sudden it opened up and we said go.”
Trump said the United States will be “very strongly involved” in deciding what happens next in Venezuela. “We can’t take a chance of letting somebody else run it and just take over what he left off,” he said. “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.” Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Vice President Rodriguez is first in line under Venezuela’s constitution, but reports have emerged she may have fled to Russia. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has a $25 million US bounty on his head as a leader of the Cartel de los Soles and controls substantial security forces. Defense Minister Padrino López commands the armed forces and survived Saturday’s attacks. Most observers believe that unless the opposition mobilizes citizens, Cabello has the best chance of taking over.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is positioned to challenge for power. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner supported Trump’s pressure campaign from the start, telling CBS in December that Venezuelans are “very grateful” to Trump and calling him “a champion of freedom in this hemisphere.” According to the New York Times, Machado’s advisors have coordinated with the Trump administration and she has a plan for the first hundred hours after Maduro’s removal. Her spokesman David Smolansky confirmed strike locations to CBS News as they happened. Venezuelans in South Florida poured into the streets of Doral before dawn, chanting “Libertad” and waving flags. Venezuelan opposition sources told Sky News they believe Maduro’s capture was a “negotiated exit” with the United States—which would explain the speed, precision, and lack of American casualties.
The strike is splitting the world. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called it an “act of armed aggression” and demanded an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Cuba denounced “state terrorism.” Colombia’s Gustavo Petro deployed troops to the Venezuelan border and called it an “assault on the sovereignty of Latin America.” Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned it as crossing “an unacceptable line,” saying it recalls “the worst moments of interference” in Latin American politics. Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei vowed to “bring the enemy to its knees.” But Argentina’s Javier Milei celebrated: “Long live freedom, damn it.” China has stayed silent beyond advising citizens to avoid Venezuela.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was “deeply alarmed” by the strikes. “Independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent,” his spokesman said. Congressional Democrats blasted the action. Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern called it an “unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela.” Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey said it “sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy.” Republican Senator Mike Lee said he looked forward to learning what might constitutionally justify the operation in the absence of congressional authorization. Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton said Maduro “will face justice for his crimes against our citizens.” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Venezuela was experiencing “a new dawn. The tyrant is gone.”
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