By Stefano Pozzebon, Simone McCarthy, Adam Cancryn, NCS
Caracas (NCS) — President Donald Trump introduced Saturday that the US will “run the country” of Venezuela after capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse in a big-scale army operation, a shocking growth that plunged the nation into uncertainty after weeks of spiraling tensions.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” he wrote on Truth Social early Saturday morning.
Trump later mentioned the US would play a central function in operating the nation indefinitely till a proper transition of energy can happen, whereas declining to rule out the potential for longer-time period army involvement in Venezuela.
“We’re going to be running it,” he mentioned from his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida.
Venezuela requested an pressing assembly of the United Nations Security Council in response to the assault, Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto mentioned.
“No cowardly attack will prevail against the strength of this people, who will emerge victorious,” he mentioned on Telegram, sharing the letter despatched to the UN.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded the “immediate release” of Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores. Rodríguez, who Trump mentioned earlier was sworn in as president, mentioned Venezuela’s territorial integrity was “savagely attacked” by the US operation.
Trump on Saturday morning posted a photograph of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, the place the Venezuelan president and his spouse have been held earlier than being transported to New York, the place they face fees. A brand new indictment filed within the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and shared by Attorney General Pam Bondi alleges that Maduro ran “state sponsored gangs” and facilitated drug trafficking within the nation.
Trump mentioned he didn’t notify members of Congress till after the strike, saying at his information convention at Mar-a-Lago that “Congress has a tendency to leak. It would not be good if they leaked.”
Democratic lawmakers demanded an instantaneous briefing and criticized the administration for not searching for congressional authorization earlier than the assault, whereas Republican lawmakers largely applauded the motion.
Here’s what we know:
What occurred?
A NCS workforce witnessed a number of explosions and heard the sounds of plane early Saturday within the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, and reported that some areas of the town have been with out electrical energy.
Videos verified by NCS confirmed helicopters roaring over Caracas, with plumes of smoke rising into the evening sky. Footage additionally confirmed a big blaze and explosions at an airport within the metropolis of Higuerote.
Hours after the strikes, NCS’s Mary Mena mentioned from Caracas that the capital was calm.
“We listened to many airplanes and helicopters passing by, but right now the city remains quiet, for the past two hours,” she mentioned. “We haven’t heard people for example coming to the streets, and the state channel keeps repeating this message from the ministry of defense saying they want people to remain calm and they will deploy military forces across the country.”
The first blast witnessed by the NCS workforce was recorded at roughly 1:50 a.m. native time (12:50 a.m. ET).
“One was so strong, my window was shaking after it,” NCS en Español correspondent Osmary Hernández mentioned.
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine later described an in depth in a single day operation to seize Maduro and his spouse that concerned greater than 150 plane launching from bases throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Among them have been helicopters carrying an extraction drive that entered Venezuela at low altitude earlier than arriving at Maduro’s compound round 1 a.m. ET. The US troopers got here below hearth, spending a number of hours on the bottom earlier than efficiently capturing Maduro and his spouse and flying out of Venezuela about 3:29 a.m. ET, Caine mentioned.
Two sources accustomed to the matter mentioned Maduro and his spouse have been dragged from their bed room by US forces through the raid. The couple was captured in the midst of the evening as they have been sleeping, the sources mentioned.
The raid, carried out by the US Army’s elite Delta Force with the help of an FBI unit, didn’t lead to any US deaths. However, a handful of troops sustained bullet and shrapnel wounds, a supply briefed on the matter advised NCS. Caine additionally mentioned that one plane “was hit, but remained flyable” and was in a position to make it out of Venezuela.
Maduro and his spouse have been then transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, starting a visit that may finally finish in New York, the place they’re anticipated to stand trial on drug-trafficking fees.
Why is it occurring?
The Trump administration has for years mentioned that Maduro was a felony and has sought to prosecute him via the US authorized system.
In 2020, throughout Trump’s first time period, the Department of Justice charged Maduro within the Southern District of New York for “narco-terrorism,” conspiracy to import cocaine, and associated fees.
The Trump administration supplied a $15 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest. That bounty was elevated to $25 million within the waning days of the Biden administration, in early January 2025, and was elevated once more, to $50 million, in August 2025 after Trump took workplace for a second time period and designated Cartel de los Soles as a overseas terrorist group. The administration has claimed that Maduro is the leader of that group, which it describes as a felony group.
Trump had repeatedly warned for months that the US was making ready to take new motion in opposition to alleged drug-trafficking networks in Venezuela and that strikes on land would begin “soon.”
Trump’s stress marketing campaign on Maduro has included strikes destroying greater than 30 boats within the Caribbean Sea and japanese Pacific Ocean in what the US has described as a counter-narcotics marketing campaign. Trump final month ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela, and the US has seized multiple vessels for the reason that announcement.
The CIA carried out a drone strike in December on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, NCS reported last month, citing sources, marking the primary recognized US assault on a goal inside that nation.
Trump mentioned Saturday he additionally straight urged Maduro to give up voluntarily.
“I said, ‘You got to surrender,’” he mentioned. “And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did.”
How has the worldwide group reacted?
Several world leaders, together with US allies, have reacted with concern to the US operation.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned he “wants to establish the facts” and communicate to Trump in regards to the army operation in Venezuela, in accordance to the UK’s PA Media information company.
“I always say and believe we should all uphold international law,” Starmer mentioned, including that Britain was “not involved in any way” within the strike on Caracas, PA Media reported.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, mentioned in a put up on X that the fee “stand(s) by the people of Venezuela and support(s) a peaceful and democratic transition. Any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.”
Many leaders throughout Latin America expressed concern to the US assault on Venezuela, with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel slamming what he known as a “criminal” assault by the US. Meanwhile, Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, appeared to welcome the seize of Venezuela’s leader with a message on X: “Freedom advances! Long live freedom, damn it!”
Venezuela’s allies Russia and Iran condemned the US assault.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced what it known as an “act of armed aggression against Venezuela” by the US, calling any “excuses” given to justify such actions “untenable.”
“We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and our support for the Bolivarian leadership’s course of action aimed at protecting the country’s national interests and sovereignty,” an announcement from the overseas ministry mentioned.
Similarly, the Iranian Foreign Ministry mentioned the assault violates Venezuela’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in addition to the UN Charter, Iranian state information outlet Press TV reported.
What comes subsequent?
What occurs subsequent in Venezuela is much from clear. The nation’s structure states that energy passes to Maduro’s vice chairman, Rodríguez.
Trump mentioned that Rodríguez spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, in a defiant tackle broadcast from Caracas, Rodríguez asserted that Maduro is “the only president of Venezuela” and that Venezuelans “must not become slaves again.”
Trump mentioned he deliberate to have the US successfully run Venezuela for an indefinite interval as it really works towards a proper transition of energy. Top US officers, together with Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, will work with a “team” to help in main the nation, he mentioned, with out providing specifics.
Trump couldn’t say how lengthy the US can be centrally concerned in Venezuela’s governance, however instructed that he was open to an extended-time period course of that would embrace a US army presence.
He repeatedly asserted that his administration would associate with US vitality firms to take management of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, arguing that the US was owed oil as “reimbursement for the damages” that he alleged had been inflicted on the nation by Venezuela.
“We’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago,” Trump mentioned.
That leaves the way forward for the present Venezuelan regime in critical doubt, but little readability on whether or not its opposition — inside and outdoors the nation — will probably be positioned to capitalize on the chance.
If the US finally follows Venezuela’s constitutional path, elections are supposed to be held inside 30 days. The newly elected president then serves a full six-yr time period.
The most definitely opposition candidate is Edmundo González Urrutia, who ran within the 2024 election. González, an instructional and longtime diplomat, is now in exile in Spain. He is supported by the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, democratic activist María Corina Machado.
On Saturday, Machado mentioned the time has come for “popular sovereignty” in Venezuela and the set up of González because the nation’s leader.
“Nicolás Maduro from today faces international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations,” she mentioned in a letter posted on X. “Given his refusal to accept a negotiated solution, the government of the United States has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law.”
But Trump declined to endorse any instant successor or lay out a plan for holding elections and restoring stability in Venezuela, whereas rejecting the likelihood that Machado may function an interim leader.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he mentioned. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Instead, Trump appeared comfy within the instant aftermath of Maduro’s ouster with sustaining management over Venezuela for so long as he deemed match.
“It’s not going to cost us anything,” he mentioned. “We’re going to be rebuilding.”
This story has been up to date with further info.
NCS’s Osmary Hernández, Mary Triny Mena, Tim Lister, Jennifer Hansler, Alejandra Jaramillo, Isaac Yee, Michael Rios, Billy Stockwell and Laura Sharman contributed to this report
The-NCS-Wire
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