Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “has been captured and flown out” of Venezuela, according to a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on his social media platform Truth Social.
The United States has carried out attacks inside Venezuela, Trump confirmed in the same message, after explosions were reported in civilian and military areas of the states of Miranda, Aragua, La Guaira, and the capital, Caracas.
Trump told the conservative Fox News that the U.S. military operation resulted in no fatalities among U.S. forces. However, “a couple of” soldiers were injured.
The U.S. president also confirmed that Maduro and his wife are on a military ship that will take them to New York to be placed at the disposal of the courts. The Republican tycoon said he watched the operation live. “I watched it, literally, like I was watching a television show,” he said. “If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence, it was an amazing thing.”
Although the main details of the operation remain unknown, sources close to it explain that the location was tracked by the CIA. Trump had authorized the intelligence agency to carry out covert activities inside Venezuela.
U.S. forces pulled Maduro and his wife out of bed while they were sleeping, according to CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter, who did not specify where they were when they were raided.
“They just burst in, and broke into places that were not really able to be broken into, steel doors that were put there for just this reason, and they got taken out in a matter of seconds. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump told Fox News.
The operation had been meticulously planned with intelligence units. Maduro suspected that an operation against him could be imminent and was obsessed with security. He had increased his protection. He moved constantly around the country, frequently changed where he slept, and regularly discarded phones to avoid being tracked.
Trump said the White House is now deciding what will happen in Venezuela following the capture of Maduro. In a phone interview with Fox News, the Republican said: “We’re making that decision now. We can’t take a chance of letting somebody else run it and just take over what he left off. So we’re making that decision now. We’ll be involved in it very much. And we want to do liberty for the people.”
The United States is going to be “strongly involved” in the Venezuelan oil, Trump added in the interview with Fox News. “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it,” he said.
The U.S. president gave the green light for the attacks days ago, according to government sources cited by CBS. According to this account, senior U.S. military officials considered carrying out an attack on Christmas Day but decided to prioritize military operations in Nigeria against the Islamic State.
Charges in the US
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reported in a post on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted on drugs and weapons charges in Manhattan federal court. CNN reported that the Venezuelan leader was already being transported to New York, according to unnamed sources.
Maduro will face the specific charges of “narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the United States,” said Bondi in her X post.
She added that they will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino described the attack as “vile and cowardly” and said authorities are assessing for possible injuries or casualties. “This invasion represents the greatest outrage our country has ever suffered, driven by the insatiable greed for our strategic resources,” Padrino said in a video. “They have attacked us, but they will not break us,” he added.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on the streets of Caracas wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, surrounded by police. “We are deployed. Trust us to get through this situation,” he said.
Shortly before 2:00 a.m., the sound of explosions woke Caracas residents as if the sky were thundering. Videos of aircraft flying overhead, along with flashes from explosions and columns of smoke, began circulating on social media. Initial reports indicate several airstrikes on the military base of Fuerte Tiuna — the main base in Caracas, located in the south of the Venezuelan capital — which has been left completely without power. A massive fire could be seen in the distance during the first minutes after the explosions, followed by an enormous cloud of gray smoke.
Attacks were also confirmed on the La Carlota air base and other military installations in Caracas, such as the Cuartel de la Montaña — where the remains of Hugo Chávez rest — as well as in Maracay and La Guaira, and at the Higuerote airport on the central coast. In videos shared by social media users, helicopters have also been seen flying over the city.
Venezuela calls for “armed struggle”
The bombings come after four months of tensions and a military escalation between Washington and Caracas. Two and a half hours after the first explosions were reported, a statement was read on state television channel VTV in which the Venezuelan government announced that it had activated a state of emergency due to external upheaval, which it had prepared for since October.
The Venezuelan government immediately called for “armed struggle” in response to the aggression by the government of the United States, the statement said.
“The entire country must mobilize to defeat this imperialist aggression,” read the statement. “The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to break the nation’s political independence by force. They will not succeed.”
It continued: “The attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a regime change, in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail like all previous attempts.”
Months of tension
Trump had been threatening military action on Venezuelan territory for months, initially arguing it was to fight against drug trafficking and later seeking to take control of the Venezuelan oil sector, which he claims was illegally taken from U.S. companies and in fact belongs to Washington.
Last week, Trump said he had carried out an initial ground attack against a dock used by drug traffickers during the month of December. There is still no clear information about that operation, although U.S. media outlets have reported that the attack allegedly took place in the Alta Guajira region, on the border with Colombia. This information was also disseminated by Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Petro, in fact, has been one of the leaders most critical of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which supposedly aim to combat drug trafficking and increase pressure on the Maduro government.
Criticism from Colombia and Cuba
The Colombian president was among the first international leaders to speak out after the attacks in Venezuela became known.
“The government of the Republic of Colombia observes with deep concern the reports of explosions and unusual aerial activity recorded in recent hours in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as the resulting escalation of tension in the region,” he wrote on the social network X. “The Colombian government rejects any unilateral military action that could worsen the situation or put the civilian population at risk.”
Petro also reported that his government has “put in place measures to protect the civilian population, preserve stability along the Colombian–Venezuelan border, and promptly address any potential humanitarian or migratory needs.”
In this regard, Colombia’s Minister of Defense Pedro Sánchez announced on the same social network the activation of the Unified Command Post (PMU) for humanitarian assistance in the border city of Cúcuta, as well as the implementation of the border plan “in order to assist the migrant population and provide all necessary support to those who require it.”
Meanwhile, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has “urgently” called for a reaction from the international community against what he described as a “criminal attack” by the United States on Venezuela. “Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted. State terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against Our America,” he posted on his X account.
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