{"id":48203,"date":"2026-01-03T16:58:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2026\/01\/03\/how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:49:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:49:50","slug":"how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2026\/01\/03\/how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro\/","title":{"rendered":"How the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After months of growing military pressure<\/a> on Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, President Donald Trump ordered a brazen operation into the South American country to capture its leader and whisk him to the United States, where his administration planned to put him on trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Saturday morning interview on \u201cFox and Friends Weekend,\u201d Trump<\/a> laid out the details of the overnight strike<\/a>, after which he said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown by helicopter to a U.S. warship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro was in a \u2018fortress,\u2019 Trump says<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trump described Maduro as being \u201chighly guarded\u201d in a presidential palace that was \u201clike a fortress,\u201d although the Venezuelan leader was not able to get to a safe room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American forces<\/a> were armed with \u201cmassive blowtorches,\u201d which they would have used to cut through steel walls had Maduro locked himself in the room, Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt had what they call a safety space, where it\u2019s solid steel all around,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t get that space closed. He was trying to get into it, but he got bum-rushed right so fast that he didn\u2019t get into that. We were prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of that preparation, Trump said, included practicing maneuvers on a replica building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the same, all that steel all over the place,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
The US carried out what it called a “large scale strike” on Venezuelan soil early Saturday as part of an operation to capture President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

\u2018We turned off all the lights\u2019<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trump said that the U.S. operation took place in darkness, although he did not detail how that had happened. He said the U.S. turned off \u201calmost all of the lights in Caracas,\u201d the capital of Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis thing was so organized,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they go into a dark space with machine guns facing them all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least seven explosions were heard in Caracas. The attack lasted less than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, who under that country\u2019s law takes power, said some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump says \u2018a couple of guys injured\u2019<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trump said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA couple of guys were hit, but they came back and they\u2019re supposed to be in pretty good shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican president said the U.S. had lost no aircraft, but that a helicopter was \u201chit pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to do it because it\u2019s a war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather was a factor<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The president also said U.S. forces held off on conducting the operation for days, waiting for cloud cover to pass because the \u201cweather has to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe waited four days,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were going to do this four days ago, three days ago, two days ago. And then all of a sudden it opened up and we said, go. And I\u2019ll tell you … it was just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is Maduro now?<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trump said that Maduro and Flores were flown by helicopter to a U.S. warship and would go on to New York to face charges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Justice Department released an indictment accusing the pair of having an alleged role in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months of escalating actions<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The raid was a dramatic escalation from a series of strikes the U.S. military has carried out on what Trump has said were drug carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. There had been 35 known strikes that killed at least 115 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 29, Trump said the U.S. struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs \u201cload up.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIA was behind the drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels. It was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began its strikes in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump said a few U.S. personnel were injured and a helicopter was “hit pretty hard” in the operation, but he believed no one was killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":110295,"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":[160,36,19,30,226],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7342],"class_list":["post-48203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-smr","category-venezuela"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DKFJEGSQ3BHMZOBYFNDTLHN2EQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/01\/03\/how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nHow the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump said a few U.S. personnel were injured and a helicopter was "hit pretty hard" in the operation, but he believed no one was killed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2026\/01\/03\/how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Trump said a few U.S. personnel were injured and a helicopter was "hit pretty hard" in the operation, but he believed no one was killed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2026\/01\/03\/how-the-us-captured-venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-03T16:58:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T16:49:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meg Kinnard and Michelle L. 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