CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — America hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and stated its president, Nicolás Maduro, had been captured and flown overseas after months of stepped-up stress by Washington — a unprecedented nighttime operation introduced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the assault.
A number of explosions rang out and low-flying plane swept by means of Caracas, the capital, as Maduro’s authorities instantly accused the USA of attacking civilian and navy installations. The Venezuelan authorities known as it an “imperialist assault” and urged residents to take to the streets.
It was not instantly clear who was working the nation, and Maduro’s whereabouts weren’t instantly identified. Trump introduced the developments on Fact Social shortly after 4:30 a.m. ET. Beneath Venezuelan legislation the vp, Delcy Rodríguez, would take energy. There was no affirmation that had occurred, although she did situation an announcement after the strike.
“We have no idea the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Girl Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez stated. “We demand proof of life.”
Maduro, Trump stated, “has been, alongside along with his spouse, captured and flown out of the Nation. This operation was carried out together with U.S. Regulation Enforcement. Particulars to observe.” He set a information convention for later Saturday morning.
The authorized implications of the strike underneath U.S. legislation weren’t instantly clear. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who briefed him on the strike. Rubio advised Lee that Maduro “has been arrested by U.S. personnel to face trial on prison prices in the USA.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to queries on the place Maduro and his spouse had been being flown to. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy prices within the Southern District of New York.
Maduro final appeared on state tv Friday whereas assembly with a delegation of Chinese language officers in Caracas.
The explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, early on the third day of 2026 — no less than seven blasts — despatched individuals dashing into the streets, whereas others took to social media to report listening to and seeing the explosions. It was not instantly clear if there have been casualties on both facet. The assault itself lasted lower than half-hour and it was unclear if extra actions lay forward, although Trump stated in his submit that the strikes had been carried out “efficiently.”
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on U.S. industrial flights in Venezuelan airspace due to “ongoing navy exercise” forward of the explosions.
The strike got here after the Trump administration spent months escalating stress on Maduro. The CIA was behind a drone strike final week at a docking space believed to have been utilized by Venezuelan drug cartels — the primary identified direct operation on Venezuelan soil for the reason that U.S. started strikes in September.
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For months, Trump had threatened that he may quickly order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of assaults on boats accused of carrying medication. Maduro has decried the U.S. navy operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from energy.
Some streets in Caracas replenish
Armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood lengthy thought of a stronghold of the ruling social gathering. However in different areas of town, the streets remained empty hours after the assault. Components of town remained with out energy, however automobiles moved freely.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal metropolis confirmed tracers and smoke clouding the panorama sky as repeated muted explosions illuminated the evening sky. Different footage confirmed an city panorama with vehicles passing on a freeway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. Unintelligible dialog could possibly be heard within the background. The movies had been verified by The Related Press.
Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a navy base in Caracas, whereas one other navy set up within the capital was with out energy.
“The entire floor shook. That is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” stated Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old workplace employee, her voice trembling. She was strolling briskly with two kin, getting back from a birthday celebration. “We felt just like the air was hitting us.”
Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying plane had been heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Picture/Matias Delacroix).
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Venezuela’s authorities responded to the assault with a name to motion. “Folks to the streets!” it stated in an announcement. “The Bolivarian Authorities calls on all social and political forces within the nation to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist assault.”
The assertion added that Maduro had “ordered all nationwide protection plans to be applied” and declared “a state of exterior disturbance.” That state of emergency offers him the facility to droop individuals’s rights and broaden the position of the armed forces.
The web site of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a submit that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to Americans within the nation, saying it was “conscious of studies of explosions in and round Caracas.”
“U.S. residents in Venezuela ought to shelter in place,” the warning stated.
Response begins to emerge
Inquiries to the Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command since Trump’s social media submit went unanswered. The FAA warned all industrial and personal U.S. pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, simply off the coast of the nation to the north, was off limits “as a result of safety-of-flight dangers related to ongoing navy exercise.”
Lee posted his potential considerations, reflecting a view from the precise flank within the Congress. “I stay up for studying what, if something, would possibly constitutionally justify this motion within the absence of a declaration of struggle or authorization for using navy pressure,” Lee stated on X.
It was not clear if the U.S. Congress had been formally notified of the strikes.
The Armed Companies committees in each homes of Congress, which have jurisdiction over navy issues, haven’t been notified by the administration of any actions, in line with an individual acquainted with the matter and granted anonymity to debate it.
Lawmakers from each political events in Congress have raised deep reservations and flat out objections to the U.S. assaults on boats suspected of drug smuggling on boats close to the Venezuelan coast and the Congress has not particularly accepted an authorization for using navy pressure for such operations within the area.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stated the navy motion and seizure of Maduro marks “a brand new daybreak for Venezuela,” saying that “the tyrant is gone.” He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reposted a submit from July that stated Maduro “is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the reliable authorities.”
Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro authorities and a longtime adversary of the USA, known as for the worldwide group to answer what president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez known as “the prison assault.” “Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted,” he stated on X. Iran’s International Ministry additionally condemned the strikes.
President Javier Milei of Argentina praised the declare by his shut ally, Trump, that Maduro had been captured with a political slogan he usually deploys to rejoice right-wing advances: “Lengthy reside freedom, dammit!”
The U.S. navy has been attacking boats within the Caribbean Sea and the japanese Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the variety of identified boat strikes is 35 and the variety of individuals killed is no less than 115, in line with numbers introduced by the Trump administration.
They adopted a significant buildup of American forces within the waters off South America, together with the arrival in November of the nation’s most superior plane provider, which added 1000’s extra troops to what was already the biggest navy presence within the area in generations.
Trump has justified the boat strikes as a needed escalation to stem the stream of medication into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed battle” with drug cartels.
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Toropin and AP journalist Lisa Mascaro reported from Washington.
