The U.S. struck Venezuela overnight and captured its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump said early on Saturday after months of pressuring him over accusations of drug-running and illegitimacy in power.
Washington has not made such a direct intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose military leader Manuel Noriega, over similar allegations.
“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 said in a Truth Social post.
The U.S. had accused Maduro of running a “narco-state” and rigging last year’s election, which the opposition said it won overwhelmingly. The Venezuelan leader, who succeeded Hugo Chavez to take power in 2013, has said Washington wants to take control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Trump said the operation was carried out “in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement” and promised more details at an 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Maduro was captured by elite special forces troops, a U.S. official told Reuters.
There was no immediate confirmation by the Venezuelan government of Maduro’s capture or departure, but Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino was defiant.
“Free, independent and sovereign Venezuela rejects with all the strength of its libertarian history the presence of these foreign troops, which have only left behind death, pain and destruction,” Padrino said in a video broadcast on state media about the same time that Trump posted his message.
“Today we clench our fist in defense of what is ours. Let us unite, for in the unity of the people we will find the strength to resist and to triumph.”
While various Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 election, direct U.S. action revives painful memories of past interventions and is generally strongly opposed by governments and populations in the region.
The Venezuelan opposition, headed by recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, said in a statement on X that it had no official comment on the events.
In the early hours on Saturday, explosions rocked Venezuela’s capital Caracas and elsewhere, prompting Maduro’s government to declare a national emergency and mobilize troops. It said attacks also took place in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
Blasts, aircraft and black smoke could be seen across Caracas from about 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) for roughly 90 minutes, according to Reuters witnesses and images circulating on social media.
