Key Developments
- Trump says US forces have captured Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large-scale strike”; hails “good” operation
- US president says Washington will govern Venezuela till transition takes place
- Maduro and his spouse indicted on weapon and drug costs, US legal professional basic says
- Venezuelan defence minister requires united entrance of resistance within the face of “the worst aggression” ever
- US State Dept deputy chief declares ‘new daybreak’ for Venezuela
- Venezuela requires emergency UN Safety Council assembly following strikes
US President Donald Trump mentioned on Saturday that Washington would govern Venezuela till a “secure, correct and even handed transition takes place” after the seize of Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro in a navy operation on Saturday morning.
American forces had captured Maduro and his spouse early on Saturday morning after launching a “large-scale strike” on the South American nation.
Addressing a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump mentioned, “No nation on the earth might obtain what America achieved yesterday,” he mentioned.
“We don‘t wish to be concerned with having anyone else get in and we’ve the identical scenario that we had for the final, lengthy interval of years,” the US president mentioned.
“So we’re going to run the nation, till such time as we are able to do a secure, correct and even handed transition. We’re going to run it, primarily.”
Trump added: “All Venezuelan navy capacities had been rendered powerless because the women and men of the US navy, working with regulation enforcement, efficiently captured Maduro at the hours of darkness.”
Furthermore, he mentioned that the US navy induced a blackout in Caracas to execute the operation to seize Maduro.
“It was darkish. The lights of Caracas had been largely turned off as a consequence of a sure experience that we’ve,” Trump mentioned.
He added that the US is able to launch a second and far bigger wave of assaults if wanted, including that Washington assumed a second wave can be vital.
“The primary wave … was so profitable we in all probability don‘t must do a second, however we’re ready to do a second wave, a a lot larger wave,” Trump said.
Persevering with his deal with, Trump mentioned that Venezuela’s oil trade “was a bust” and that US oil firms would are available, restore the oil infrastructure and “begin getting cash for the nation”.
Nevertheless, Trump brushed apart Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition chief Maria Corina Machado as a possible interim chief of Venezuela, as he mentioned Washington was working with the deposed Maduro’s vice chairman.
“I feel it will be very powerful for her to be the chief. She doesn’t have the help inside or the respect inside the nation,” Trump mentioned. “She’s a really good lady, however she doesn’t have the respect.“
Furthermore, each he and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prompt potential motion towards Cuba and Colombia.
‘Months of planning and rehearsal’
The US navy operation to extract Maduro in a nighttime raid in Caracas took “months of planning and rehearsal” and greater than 150 US plane had been used, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Basic Dan Caine advised reporters at Trump’s press convention.
“The phrase integration doesn’t clarify the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so exact — it concerned greater than 150 plane launching throughout the Western Hemisphere,” Gen Caine advised a joint press convention with President Donald Trump.
He added that Maduro’s spouse, Cilia Flores, surrendered to US forces in Caracas earlier than being extracted.
“Maduro and his spouse, each indicted, gave up and had been taken into custody by the Division of Justice, assisted by our unbelievable US navy with professionalism and precision, with no lack of US life,” Gen Caine mentioned.
In a Truth Social post earlier right now, Trump wrote: “The US of America has efficiently carried out a large-scale strike towards Venezuela and its chief, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, alongside along with his spouse, captured and flown in another country.
“This operation was executed at the side of US regulation enforcement,” the US president added.
In an interview with Fox Information, Trump mentioned Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been taken to a ship after their seize by US forces and might be transported to New York.
“They had been indicted in New York and they are going to be taken to New York,” he mentioned, stating that the Venezuelan president and his spouse had been aboard the united statesIwo Jima.
The White Home posted {a photograph} of Maduro aboard the vessel carrying a blindfold and ear defenders, which Trump additionally shared on Fact Social.
In a quick cellphone interview with The New York Occasions, Trump hailed the “good” operation.
“Plenty of good planning and quite a lot of nice, nice troops and nice folks,” the paper quoted Trump as saying.
Venezuela has since demanded an emergency assembly of the UN Safety Council to debate the US assaults.
“Confronted with the legal aggression dedicated by the US authorities towards our homeland, we’ve requested an pressing assembly of the United Nations Safety Council, which is answerable for upholding worldwide regulation,” Venezuelan Overseas Minister Yvan Gil wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.
It was unclear if the US would now stand again whereas different senior figures in Venezuela’s ruling get together — like Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — fill the void or if there can be strain for his or her ouster as effectively.
‘It was a tremendous factor’: Trump
Talking on Fox Information, Trump praised his staff for the operation and described watching the operation because it came about.
“I watched it like I used to be watching a tv present,” he mentioned. “For those who had seen the velocity and the violence … it was a tremendous factor and a tremendous job these folks did.”
Elaborating on watching the operation unfold, he mentioned that it was an “extraordinarily advanced manoeuvre” and that a number of helicopters had been employed.
“We watched it and we watched each side of it,” Trump mentioned. “I’ve by no means seen something like this. It was superb to see the professionalism, the standard of management.“
The US president did point out that there have been “just a few accidents on our facet”, however famous that no American personnel had been killed.
Trump mentioned that the operation was initially going to happen 4 days in the past, however was delayed due to unhealthy climate.
“The climate needs to be good and we had simply the proper climate,” he defined.
He added that Maduro was in a “home that was extra like a fortress” when US forces captured him. “We had no one killed and we misplaced no plane.
“We needed to do it, it’s a warfare,” Trump emphasised.
Furthermore, he added that Maduro “needed to barter on the finish”, however Trump refused.
“I advised him ‘you must hand over, you must give up’,” Trump mentioned, including that he spoke with Maduro per week in the past.
Reacting to US lawmakers calling the strike “unjustified [and] unlawful”, Trump mentioned, “These are weak, silly folks and so they’re attempting to save lots of themselves from virtually destroying our nation.”
Subsequent steps
Requested in regards to the subsequent steps for Venezuela, Trump mentioned, “We‘re making that call now. We’ll be concerned in it very a lot.”
He added that the folks of Venezuela had been completely happy and that the US “needed to do liberty for” them.
“Individuals have little loyalty, if any loyalty to him (Maduro),” Trump mentioned.
Trump additional mentioned that Washington might be “very strongly concerned” in Venezuela’s oil trade.
“We now have the best oil firms on the earth, the largest, the best, and we’re going to be very a lot concerned in it,” he mentioned.
Talking about Maduro loyalists remaining in Venezuela, Trump warned that anybody loyal to the Venezuelan president “goes to have a nasty future”.
When requested if the operation in Venezuela was a message to Mexico, Trump mentioned “it wasn’t meant to be”, including that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum isn’t operating the nation, however the cartels are.
“We now have to do one thing … we misplaced 300,000 folks … to medication,” he claimed. “They arrive in via the southern border and one thing’s going to must be executed about Mexico.”
Maduro indicted on drug, weapon costs
In a submit on X, US Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi introduced that Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been charged within the Southern District of New York.
The fees embrace narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine weapons and harmful gadgets, and conspiracy to own machine weapons and harmful gadgets towards the US.
“They (Maduro and Flores) will quickly face the complete wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she wrote.
“On behalf of the whole US DOJ (Division of Justice), I wish to thank President Trump for having the braveness to demand accountability on behalf of the American folks, and an enormous thanks to our courageous navy who performed the unbelievable and extremely profitable mission to seize these two alleged worldwide narco traffickers.”
‘New daybreak, the tyrant is gone’
“A brand new daybreak for Venezuela! The tyrant is gone. He’ll now — lastly — face justice for his crimes,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau mentioned on X.
US Senator Mike Lee mentioned the nation had accomplished its navy motion, quoting Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“He anticipates no additional motion in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody,” Lee, a Republican initially crucial of the operation, wrote on X after what he mentioned was a phone name with Rubio.
Rubio, in the meantime, uploaded a screenshot of one among his previous posts on X right now, which claimed Maduro was not the president of Venezuela.
The previous submit, dated July 27, 2025, reads: “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the reliable authorities.
“Maduro is the top of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror group which has taken possession of a rustic. And he’s below indictment for pushing medication into the US,” Rubio added.
Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest navy advanced, located within the south of Caracas, and Carlota airbase within the north, had been among the many targets of the strikes. Blasts had been additionally heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, the place Caracas’s airport and port are situated.
A US official mentioned Maduro was captured by elite US particular forces troops.
Proof of life
Earlier right now, Venezuelan Vice President Rodriguez mentioned the federal government doesn’t know the whereabouts of President Maduro or Flores, in an audio performed on state TV.
“We demand rapid proof of lifetime of President Nicolas Maduro and the primary combatant Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez mentioned.
In the meantime, Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López accused the US of hitting residential areas.
The “invading” US forces “have desecrated our soil, going as far as to strike, utilizing missiles and rockets fired from their fight helicopters, residential areas populated by civilians,” Lopez mentioned in a video assertion shared on social media.
He additionally mentioned the South American nation would launch a “huge deployment of all land, air, naval, riverine and missile capabilities … for complete defence“. The defence minister known as for a united entrance of resistance within the face of “the worst aggression” ever towards Venezuela.
Venezuela’s Inside Minister Diosdado Cabello, in the meantime, mentioned that the nation “will overcome” the wave of US navy strikes.
Thought-about one of the highly effective males in Caracas, Cabello advised an area tv broadcast, “On the finish of those assaults, we are going to overcome,” including that “this isn’t our first battle towards our folks… we’ve managed to outlive below all circumstances.
The opposition, headed by Machado, had no rapid remark however has mentioned for 18 months that it received the 2024 election and has a democratic proper to take energy.
Nevertheless, her whereabouts, after lately fleeing Venezuela in disguise to select up her Nobel prize, had been unknown.
Individually, Colombian President Gustavo Petro mentioned he ordered the deployment of navy forces to the Venezuelan border.
Petro described Washington’s actions as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and mentioned they’d end in a humanitarian disaster.
Petro made no point out of Maduro’s seize, regardless of the Venezuelan chief being one among his authorities’s closest allies within the area.
Motion in Venezuela remembers previous US interventions
Whereas numerous Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 election, direct US motion has revived painful reminiscences of previous interventions and is mostly strongly opposed by governments and populations within the area.
Washington has not made such a direct intervention in Latin America because the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose navy chief Manuel Noriega.
Trump‘s motion remembers the ‘Monroe Doctrine’, specified by 1823 by President James Monroe, laying the US declare to affect within the area, in addition to the “gunboat diplomacy” seen below Theodore Roosevelt within the early 1900s.
In his Mar-a-Lago press convention, Trump made reference to the Monroe Doctrine however mentioned “We’ve outmoded it … they name it the Donroe Doctrine”.
Within the early hours on Saturday, explosions rocked Caracas and elsewhere, prompting Maduro’s authorities to declare a nationwide emergency and mobilise troops. It mentioned assaults additionally came about within the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
Blasts, plane and black smoke might be seen throughout Caracas from about 2am native time (0600 GMT; 11am PKT) for roughly 90 minutes, in line with Reuters witnesses and pictures circulating on social media.
Residents expressed shock and worry as they captured video of billowing smoke and shiny orange flashes within the sky.
“My love, oh no, take a look at that,” mentioned one lady in a video, gasping at blasts within the distance.
Carmen Marquez, 50, a resident of the jap a part of the capital, mentioned she went to her roof and will hear planes at completely different altitudes, although she couldn’t see them.
“Flare-like lights had been crossing the sky after which explosions might be heard. We’re apprehensive about what‘s coming subsequent. We don’t know something from the federal government, solely what the state tv says,” she mentioned.
Political backlash within the US?
Trump’s gorgeous announcement follows months of steadily mounting US navy and financial strain on leftist chief Maduro and his nation’s oil-export-dependent financial system.
The US president mentioned in December, “it will be good for [Maduro]” to step down“ and has additionally mentioned that the Venezuelan chief’s “days are numbered”.
It was unclear below what authorized authority the newest US strikes had been carried out. Authorized specialists have raised questions in regards to the legality of assaults on suspected drug vessels within the area, which have killed greater than 110 folks to this point.
Trump‘s transfer dangers drawing backlash from the US Congress, which has the constitutional proper to declare warfare, and from his personal political base, which favours an ‘America First coverage’ and largely opposes navy intervention overseas.
MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic mentioned oil costs had been more likely to leap on the near-term danger to produce, however that the US strike might be bearish within the medium time period if a brand new Venezuelan authorities ends in sanctions being lifted and renewed international funding.
Venezuelan state-run vitality firm PDVSA’s oil manufacturing and refining had been regular and its most vital amenities had suffered no injury in line with an preliminary evaluation, two sources with data of the corporate’s operations mentioned.
Trump’s declare of Maduro’s seize comes two days after Maduro tried to have interaction with Trump, providing cooperation on combating drug trafficking and unlawful migration.
The US has accused Maduro of operating a “narco-state” and rigging an election. Trump had additionally repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan chief, who succeeded Hugo Chavez to take energy in 2013, has mentioned Washington desires to take management of its oil reserves, the second-largest on the earth.
