By Eric Mack
President Donald Trump says Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro has been captured after the US conducted a “large-scale strike” on the country early Saturday morning.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at 4:21 a.m. ET.
“This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
In an overnight phone interview with The New York Times, Trump called the covert operation “brilliant.”
“A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump said. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”
The Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who is the next in line for the presidency, is demanding “proof of life.”
“The cradle of the Liberator was attacked. In the face of this situation, we do not know the whereabouts of President Maduro,” she said in a phone interview posted to X. “We demand from Donald Trump proof of life of President Maduro. People to the streets.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, announcing Maduro will be brought to justice in the U.S.
“Just got off the phone with@SecRubio,” Lee posted on X. “He informed me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.
“This action likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.
“Thank you, @SecRubio, for keeping me apprised.”
Lee added in an ensuing post: “He anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., says the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro is the Western hemisphere’s “equivalent of the fall of the Berlin wall.”
“🚨I have just spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” Gimenez wrote on X.
“President Trump has changed the course of history in our hemisphere. Our country & the world are safer for it.
“Today’s decisive action is this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
“It’s a big day in Florida, where the majority of Venezuelan, Cuban, & Nicaraguan exiles reside. This is the community I represent & we are overwhelmed with emotion and hope.
“We are forever grateful to President Trump & to our brave service members for this stellar military operation.
“¡Gracias!
“🇺🇸🤝🇻🇪”
At least seven explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through the capital of Venezuela early Saturday, with Maduro accusing the United States of attacking civilian and military installations following a monthslong pressure campaign.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of “ongoing military activity” ahead of the explosions in Caracas. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. about its role, the targets or the purpose of the strikes.
The explosions in Caracas sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the blasts.
It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. The apparent attack lasted less than 30 minutes, and two hours later, parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.
“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”
The explosions come as the Trump administration has escalated a pressure campaign on Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
‘Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs. Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Pentagon referred requests for comment to the White House, which didn’t immediately return calls or emails seeking comment. Calls to the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the region, went unanswered.
Trump is at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has spent the last two weeks for the holiday season. His public schedule showed he was set to receive an intelligence briefing on Friday evening, hours before the reported strikes. He offered no immediate comment on social media.
Venezuela’s government called on its supporters to take to the streets.
“People to the streets!” it said in a statement. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”
The statement added that Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.” That state of emergency gives him the power to suspend people’s rights and expand the role of the armed forces.
The website of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was “aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas.”
“U.S. citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place,” the warning said.
The FAA warned all commercial and private U.S. pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country to the north, was off-limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.”
The explosions come amid the Trump administration’s escalating military actions in the region. The U.S. has seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.
The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.
Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Venezuela said it was open Friday to negotiating an agreement with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking.
Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the pressure campaign.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on the explosions in Caracas on Saturday, showing images of the Venezuelan capital. Iran has been close to Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared enmity of the U.S.
The Trump Presidency keeps on winning. Iran will fall soon and the supreme leader will be kicked to the curb.