Why has Donald Trump attacked Venezuela and taken Maduro?

Donald Trump said US forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro following large-scale attacks in Venezuela.

The US president wrote on social media that Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were flown out of the country. It is unclear where they are now.

Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces would defend the country’s sovereignty.

The strikes in Venezuela follow a US pressure campaign against Maduro’s government, which the Trump administration accuses of flooding the US with drugs and gang members.

We have very little information so far. Trump’s social media post included the following statements:

• US “successfully carried out a large-scale attack against Venezuela and its leader”
• Maduro and his wife were captured and sent out of the country

This, combined with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez saying she does not know where Maduro is or whether he is still alive, indicates that Maduro has indeed been removed from office.

But the fact that Venezuela’s defense minister and Rodríguez are still in the country and appearing on state television indicates that key members of Maduro’s government will remain in power.

There are few details so far about how the US operation was conducted.

Video footage from inside Venezuela shows large explosions, and residents of the capital Caracas reported hearing sounds of planes and explosions.

Smoke was seen rising from different parts of the capital and helicopters were flying in convoy.

It was reported that many military facilities were hit.

US officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the attacks were ordered by the Trump administration.

They also told CBS News that Nicolás Maduro was captured by the Delta force, the U.S. military’s top counterterrorism unit. However, we do not have further details about the reported capture so far.

The Venezuelan government confirmed that Caracas was attacked and said there were also strikes in the states of Miranda, La Guaira and Aragua.

Nicolás Maduro rose to prominence under the leadership of leftist President Hugo Chávez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, succeeded Chavez and has served as president since 2013.

During the 26 years that Chavez and Maduro have been in power, their parties have seized control of key institutions such as the National Assembly, much of the judiciary and the electoral council.

In 2024, Maduro was declared the winner of the presidential election, although vote counts collected by the opposition suggested that his candidate, Edmundo González, won by a landslide.

González had replaced main opposition leader María Corina Machado on the ballot after her candidacy was banned.

In October, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “struggle to ensure a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Machado defied travel ban and He traveled to Oslo in December to receive the award after months of hiding.

He said he planned to return to Venezuela, a move that would put him at risk of arrest by Venezuelan authorities, who declared him a “fugitive.”

Trump blames Nicolás Maduro for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants coming to the United States.

They are among up to eight million Venezuelans estimated to have fled the country’s economic crisis and oppression since 2013.

Without providing evidence, Trump accused Maduro of “emptying his prisons and mental hospitals” and “forcing” prisoners to immigrate to the United States.

Trump has also focused on combating the import of drugs into the United States (especially fentanyl and cocaine).

He designated two Venezuelan criminal groups – Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles – as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and claimed that the latter was led by Maduro himself.

Analysts note that Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but a term used to describe corrupt officials who allow cocaine to pass through Venezuela.

Trump also doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture and announced that he would appoint Maduro’s government as an FTO.

Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and accused the United States of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to oust him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Counternarcotics experts say Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking and serves as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.

Although its neighbor Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, most of the cocaine is thought to enter the United States through other routes rather than through Venezuela.

It is estimated that almost three-quarters of the cocaine reaching the United States is trafficked across the Pacific, with only a small percentage arriving via fast boats in the Caribbean, according to a 2020 report from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

While most of the early U.S. strikes were in the Caribbean, more recent attacks have focused on the Pacific.

In September, Trump told US military leaders that the targeted boats were “filled with bags of white powder, mostly fentanyl and other drugs.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic drug that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and has become the main drug responsible for opioid overdose deaths in the United States.

On December 15, Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction” and argued that it was “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic.”

But fentanyl is produced primarily in Mexico and reaches the United States almost exclusively by land via the southern border.

DEA reports do not mention Venezuela as the country of origin of fentanyl smuggled into the United States 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment.

There has been increasing pressure on Maduro’s government since Trump began his second term in office last January.

First, the Trump administration doubled the reward it offered for information leading to Maduro’s capture.

In September, US forces began targeting ships they accused of carrying drugs from South America to the US.

Since then, there have been more than 30 attacks on such ships in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing more than 110 people.

The Trump administration argues that it is engaged in a non-international armed conflict with drug traffickers, whom it accuses of waging an irregular war against the United States.

Legal experts say the attacks were not aimed at “legitimate military targets.” The first attack on September 2 received special scrutiny because it was not one but two attacks, and survivors of the first attack were killed in the second attack.

A former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the BBC that US military action falls into the category of terrorism more generally. a planned, systematic attack against civilians in peacetime.

In response, the White House said it was acting in accordance with the laws of armed conflict to protect the United States from cartels “trying to bring poison to our shores… trying to destroy American lives.”

In October, Trump announced that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.

He also threatened ground attacks against what he described as “narco-terrorists”.

He said the first of such attacks was carried out on December 24, but gave few details and said he only targeted the “dock area” where boats allegedly loaded with drugs were located.

Trump has repeatedly said Maduro is “no friend of the United States” and that it would be “wise” for him to leave.

He also increased financial pressure on Maduro by declaring an “all-out naval blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. Oil is the Maduro government’s main source of foreign revenue.

The United States also deployed a large military force in the Caribbean, and it was stated that the purpose of this force was to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the United States.

In addition to targeting ships they accused of drug smuggling, this force also played a key role in the US naval blockade.

The United States has deployed 15,000 troops and a number of aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean.

The US fleet includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald Ford.

US helicopters reportedly took off from here before US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on December 10.

The US said the tanker was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.” Venezuela described the action as an act of “international piracy”.

Since then, the United States has targeted two more tankers in waters off Venezuela.

Maduro has long accused the Trump administration of trying to oust him so the U.S. can seize control of Venezuela’s oil wealth, pointing to a statement Trump made after the U.S. seized the first oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.

When asked by journalists what will happen to the tanker and its cargo, he said: “I assume we will keep the oil.”

But US officials have previously rejected Venezuelan claims that moves against Maduro’s government are an attempt to secure access to the country’s untapped reserves.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, and profits from the oil sector finance more than half of the government budget.

But its exports have been hit by sanctions, a lack of investment and mismanagement at Venezuela’s state-crippling oil company.

In 2023, Venezuela produced only 0.8% of global crude oil, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

It currently exports about 900,000 barrels a day, and China is by far its biggest buyer.