US strikes Venezuela, captures Maduro

United States President Donald Trump has announced that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been captured and flown out of the country following a large-scale military strike on Venezuela.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The strikes came in the early hours of Saturday morning, with at least seven explosions heard in the Venezuelan capital Caracas around 2am local time. The Venezuelan government confirmed that military and government targets across the country were hit and blamed the United States for the attacks.

Low-flying aircraft were reported over Caracas as the strikes took place. The Venezuelan government said it “rejects, repudiates, and denounces” what it called America’s “military aggression.”

The attacks follow weeks of mounting pressure from Trump on Maduro to step down from power. 

The US president has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of running a narco-state and facilitating drug trafficking into America.

In a statement, the Venezuelan government accused the US of trying to “seise Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the nation’s political independence.”

“Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and seriously endangers the lives of millions of people,” the statement added.

The strikes mark a significant escalation in US military action against Venezuela. 

Since September, the US has carried out at least 35 strikes on small boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing at least 115 people. Last week, the CIA conducted a drone strike on a docking facility inside Venezuela, the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil.

Before Saturday’s strikes, Maduro had declared he was willing to negotiate with Washington on drug trafficking and offered US companies access to Venezuela’s oil reserves. However, he maintained that the US was seeking regime change to control the country’s resources.

In response to the strikes, Maduro declared a “state of external disturbance throughout the national territory” and ordered all national defence plans to be implemented. The Venezuelan government called on supporters to take to the streets.

“The entire country must mobilise to defeat this imperialist aggression,” the government statement said.

The US said it does not recognise Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president following the widely disputed 2024 election. 

In August, Maduro was charged with narco-terrorism in the United States and faces a $50 million bounty for his capture.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on multiple criminal charges, including "narco-terrorism."

"Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicholas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States," Bondi said on US social media company X.