{"id":386380,"date":"2026-01-04T00:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T00:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386380\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T00:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T00:14:10","slug":"what-we-know-about-a-us-strike-that-captured-venezuelas-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386380\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about a US strike that captured Venezuela’s Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 In a lightning military strike<\/a>, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spirited them out of the country to face justice in the United States.<\/p>\n

Now President Donald Trump says the U.S. is \u201cgoing to run\u201d Venezuela until a transition of power can take place, but it\u2019s not clear what that will mean on the ground in the South American country.<\/p>\n

The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Much is still unknown about how the U.S. ouster of Maduro will ricochet across the country and the region.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know \u2014 and what we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Rising US pressure, then an overnight attack<\/p>\n

Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela\u2019s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fern\u00e1ndez said Maduro and Flores were captured at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.<\/p>\n

The attack followed months of escalating pressure<\/a> by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Late last month, the CIA carried out a drone strike<\/a> at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.<\/p>\n

Trump says the US will run Venezuela, but how is unclear<\/p>\n

Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind him, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> and Dan Caine<\/a>, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they\u2019d be the ones doing it \u201cfor a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, although across Venezuela\u2019s capital there were no signs that the U.S. had taken control of the government or military forces.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

But during a televised address<\/a> after Trump\u2019s news conference, Rodriguez made no mention of talking to Rubio, of taking over the presidency or of cooperating with the U.S. State television has not shown a swearing-in ceremony and during her address, a ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president.<\/p>\n

Instead, she demanded the U.S. free Maduro, called him the country\u2019s rightful leader and said what was happening to Venezuela \u201cis an atrocity that violates international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again \u2026 we are willing to have respectful relations,\u201d she said, referring to the Trump administration. \u201cIt is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).\u201d<\/p>\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. But 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

Trump offered no details on what U.S. leadership in Venezuela would mean or specify whether it would involve more military involvement.<\/p>\n

The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about how the U.S. would run Venezuela, what authority it would use to administer it or whether it would involve any American personnel \u2014 either civilian or military \u2014 on the ground in Caracas or other areas of Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The future of Venezuela\u2019s oil infrastructure<\/p>\n

Trump mentioned the country\u2019s oil infrastructure repeatedly during the news conference. He suggested there would be a substantial U.S. role in Venezuela\u2019s oil industry, saying that U.S. oil companies would go in and fix the broken infrastructure. <\/p>\n

And Trump said the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The US charges against Maduro<\/p>\n

According to an indictment made public Saturday, Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts:<\/a> narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. <\/p>\n

Authorities allege powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange. <\/p>\n

Maduro and his wife were initially taken to a U.S. warship and then flown by plane to New York on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear when they would make their first court appearance or where they would be detained.<\/p>\n

How the US operation played out<\/p>\n

Trump gave some details of the operation<\/a> during a Saturday morning interview on \u201cFox and Friends,\u201d and he and Caine<\/a> went into more depth during the news conference.<\/p>\n

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

He said Maduro was \u201chighly guarded\u201d in a presidential palace akin to a \u201cfortress\u201d and he tried to get to a safe room but wasn\u2019t able to get there in time.<\/p>\n

Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off \u201calmost all of the lights in Caracas,\u201d although he didn\u2019t detail how they accomplished that.<\/p>\n

Caine said the mission had been \u201cmeticulously planned\u201d for months, relying on work by the U.S. intelligence community to find Maduro and detail how he moved, lived, ate and what he wore.<\/p>\n

The mission involved more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere, Caine said. Helicopters came under fire as they approached \u201cthe target area,\u201d he said, and responded with \u201coverwhelming force.\u201d <\/p>\n

Questions over legality<\/p>\n

The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.<\/p>\n

Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action \u201clikely falls within the president\u2019s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some Democrats were more critical.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro \u2014 however terrible he is \u2014 is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

How opposition leader Machado figures in Trump\u2019s plans<\/p>\n

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a> had intended to run against Maduro<\/a> in the 2024 presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. She went into hiding and wasn\u2019t seen for nearly a year.<\/p>\n

Trump said Saturday that he hadn\u2019t been in touch with Machado and said it would be \u201cvery tough\u201d for her to lead Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t have the support within or the respect within the country. She\u2019s a very nice woman, but she doesn\u2019t have the respect,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 In a lightning military strike, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,83190,14271,90848,64636,12,22048,3321,793,3073,3140,80368,643,11812,3,18231,1572,44495,111,18598,24265,2798,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,18597,800,965],"class_list":["post-386380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-caracas","tag-central-america","tag-cilia-flores","tag-dan-caine","tag-donald-trump","tag-drug-crimes","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-latin-america","tag-mara-corina-machado","tag-marco-rubio","tag-mike-lee","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-political-violence","tag-politics","tag-south-america","tag-terrorism","tag-tim-kaine","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-venezuela-government","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}