US captures Venezuelan strongman Maduro, Trump says
President Donald Trump said the United States attacked Venezuela and deposed long-serving autocratic President Nicolas Maduro; This was Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
“The United States has successfully carried out a large-scale attack against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who was captured and sent out of the country along with his wife,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
Before the overnight strikes, the US accused Maduro of running a “narco state” and rigging the 2024 elections. The Venezuelan leader, a 63-year-old former bus driver who was handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, rejected those claims and said Washington intended to seize control of his country’s world’s largest oil reserves.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Maduro was captured by special operations forces and taken by helicopters to the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima in the Caribbean before being transferred to New York.
The fate of Maduro’s government remains an open question.
Four sources said Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was in Russia and closely followed her movements, adding to the confusion about who will rule this South American country. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the news that Rodriguez was in Russia was “fake”.
The United States has not intervened so directly in its backyard since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to oust military leader Manuel Noriega over similar allegations.
Venezuela’s ruling “Chavismo” movement, named after Maduro’s revered predecessor, said civilians and military personnel died in Saturday’s attacks but did not give figures.
While other senior figures in Venezuela’s ruling party, such as vice president Delcy Rodriguez, filled the void, it was unclear whether the United States would step back or push for their ouster as well.
The opposition, led by recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, has yet to comment but has been saying for 18 months that it won the 2024 elections and has the right to come to power democratically.
Trump said the operation was carried out “in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service” and promised more details at a news conference at 11 a.m. local time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Explosions shook Caracas around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday; Explosions, planes and black smoke were seen for about 90 minutes. The Venezuelan government said the attacks also took place in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
Maduro was indicted in US federal court in 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges for running what prosecutors called a scheme to send tons of cocaine to the US through the so-called “Cartel de Los Soles”. He always denied this.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice in American courts on American soil,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said about Maduro and his wife on the X channel.
In the Panama case, Noriega was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Venezuela’s opposition says Maduro has repeatedly cheated his power in votes, in addition to crushing street protests and jailing opposition figures.
The whereabouts of Machado, who recently escaped from Venezuela in disguise to receive the Nobel Prize, were unknown.
While various Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 votes, direct US intervention revives painful memories of past interventions and is generally strongly opposed by governments and peoples in the region.
Trump’s action is reminiscent of the Monroe Doctrine, introduced by President James Monroe in 1823, which established the United States’ assertion of influence in the region, and the “gunboat diplomacy” seen under Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.
Venezuela’s allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the attacks as a violation of sovereignty. Tehran called on the UN Security Council to stop the “illegal attack”.
Among the leading Latin American countries, Argentinian President Javier Milei praised Venezuela’s new “freedom”, while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said it crossed an “unacceptable line”.
It was not clear under what legal authority the latest US attacks were carried out.
