Donald Trump releases picture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro after capture

In a daring night operation on Saturday, longtime Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by American forces and flown out of the Latin American country. Here’s more on this topic.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by US forces and flown from Venezuela.

US President Donald Trump released the first photo of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after he was captured in an operation by US forces early Saturday. In the photo, 63-year-old Nicolas Maduro is seen handcuffed and blindfolded, holding a bottle of water in his hand. In a daring night operation, longtime president Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by American forces and flown from Venezuela.

What will be Maduro’s future?

Trump had previously said that Maduro would be taken to New York, where he would be charged with drug trafficking and conspiracy to possess weapons against the United States. Speaking to Fox News, the US leader said that some American soldiers were injured in the attack, but none of them died. Trump said: “I was told by real military people that there was no other country in the world that could do a maneuver like that… I literally watched it like I was watching a television show.”

Nations are alarmed

Pro-Trump Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, welcomed the US attack on her country and said “the hour of freedom has come”. However, many countries around the world, including Russia and Iran, were alarmed by this US move and questioned its legality. In his second term, which began less than a year ago, Trump has twice used American forces to conduct risky operations abroad. In June 2025, at a time when Iran was involved in the conflict with Israel, the United States ordered an attack on important nuclear sites in Iran.