{"id":48074,"date":"2026-01-03T13:04:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T13:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2026\/01\/03\/us-strikes-venezuela-says-nicolas-maduro-has-been-captured\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:27:10","slug":"us-strikes-venezuela-says-nicolas-maduro-has-been-captured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2026\/01\/03\/us-strikes-venezuela-says-nicolas-maduro-has-been-captured\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes Venezuela, says Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been captured"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States hit Venezuela<\/a> with a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d early Saturday and said its president had been captured and flown out of the country after months of intense pressure on Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government<\/a> \u2014 an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump<\/a> on social media hours after the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal authority for the strike<\/a> \u2014 and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand \u2014 was not immediately clear. The stunning, lightning-fast American military action<\/a>, which plucked a nation\u2019s sitting leader from office, echoed the U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 \u2014 exactly 36 years ago Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York. Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would \u201csoon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro was indicted in 2020 on \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy charges, but it was not previously known that his wife had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital<\/a>, and Maduro\u2019s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military<\/a> installations, calling it an \u201cimperialist attack\u201d and urging citizens to take to the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Maduro\u2019s whereabouts not known, the vice president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, would take power under Venezuelan law. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not know the whereabouts of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe demand proof of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
President Nicolas Maduro waves a Venezuelan flag during an event in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Ariana Cubillos\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maduro, Trump said, \u201chas been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.\u201d He set a news conference for later Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions \u2014 at least seven blasts \u2014 sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they\u2019d seen and heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodr\u00edguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured in Venezuela but he believed none were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed him on the strike and said that Maduro \u201chas been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House did not immediately respond to queries on where Maduro and his wife were being flown to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike came after the Trump administration spent months increasing the pressure on Maduro, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels \u2014 the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115, according to the Trump administration. Trump said that the U.S. is engaged in an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as a necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some streets in Caracas fill up<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. As daylight broke, some rallied while holding posters of Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 3, 2026. (Matias Delacroix\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,\u201d said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. \u201cWe felt like the air was hitting us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela\u2019s government responded to the attack with a call to action: \u201cPeople to the streets!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement added that Maduro had \u201cordered all national defense plans to be implemented\u201d and declared \u201ca state of external disturbance.\u201d That state of emergency gives him the power to suspend people\u2019s rights and expand the role of the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was \u201caware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cU.S. citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place,\u201d the warning said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaction begins to emerge<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Inquiries to the Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command since Trump\u2019s social media post went unanswered. The FAA warned all commercial and private U.S. pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country, was off limits \u201cdue to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armed Services committees in both houses of Congress, which have jurisdiction over military matters, have not been notified by the administration of any actions, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised deep reservations and flat out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling on boats near the Venezuelan coast and Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said the military action and seizure of Maduro marks \u201ca new dawn for Venezuela,\u201d saying that \u201cthe tyrant is gone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Rubio, reposted a post from July that said Maduro \u201cis NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, called for the international community to respond to what president Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel Berm\u00fadez called \u201cthe criminal attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur zone of peace is being brutally assaulted,\u201d he said on X. Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry also condemned the strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Javier Milei of Argentina praised the claim by his close ally, Trump, that Maduro had been captured with a political slogan he often deploys to celebrate right-wing advances: \u201cLong live freedom, dammit!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was not known if there were any deaths or injuries on either side or if more actions lay ahead. Trump said the strikes were carried out \u201csuccessfully.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[37,160,36,19,30,226],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7271],"class_list":["post-48074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-smr","category-venezuela"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D5XXPYVBMZFTFNZWU52GTMENSE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/01\/03\/us-strikes-venezuela-says-nicolas-maduro-has-been-captured\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nUS strikes Venezuela, says Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been captured - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It was not known if there were any deaths or injuries on either side or if more actions lay ahead. 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