US Strikes Venezuela, Captures President Nicolás Maduro

The United States has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flown him out of the country in a dramatic overnight operation accompanied by a series of military strikes, according to US officials, marking a stunning escalation in Washington’s pressure on the oil-rich South American nation.

President Donald Trump said the US is now weighing its next steps on Venezuela. “We’ll be involved in it very much,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday.

The legal authority underpinning the operation was not immediately clear. The action — involving the removal of a sitting head of state — drew comparisons to the 1990 US invasion of Panama that led to the capture of then-leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, exactly 36 years ago.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges following an indictment in New York. In a social media post, Bondi said the couple would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Maduro and several senior Venezuelan officials were indicted by US prosecutors in 2020 on charges related to an alleged “narco-terrorism” conspiracy. It was previously unclear whether Flores had also been indicted, and Bondi did not specify whether she was referring to a new case.

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their residence inside the Ft. Tiuna military complex in Caracas when they were taken.

“That’s where they bombed,” Fernández said. “And there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”

Residents of the capital reported multiple explosions early Saturday, with low-flying aircraft seen over Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the United States of striking civilian and military targets, denouncing the operation as an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to mobilise in protest.