US Strikes Venezuela, Takes Maduro into Custody
On January 3, 2026, President Donald Trump said the U.S. carried out a large-scale strike in Venezuela and that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured and flown out of the country into U.S. custody, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying they would face prosecution in American courts.
Reports describe the operation as a rapid overnight action with explosions in Caracas and strikes on key security and military-linked sites (including major complexes such as Fuerte Tiuna and other strategic facilities), and U.S. officials told reporters the capture mission involved Delta Force.
The administration framed the operation as a decisive blow against a regime the U.S. has long treated less like a normal government and more like an alleged criminal enterprise: in March 2020, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking charges against Maduro (and others), and the State Department publicly offered a reward for information leading to his arrest/conviction—later increased over time (with official U.S. postings reflecting higher figures, and some contemporaneous reporting describing an even larger increase).
Some claims used to justify escalation—such as tight Maduro-state coordination with Tren de Aragua and directing drug flows/migration—have been contested within U.S. intelligence assessments and the truth of American evidence will be presented in court.
The U.S. military posture around Venezuela had already been building, including the deployment of Aegis-guided missile destroyers off the region in August 2025 amid a stated anti-cartel focus, setting the stage for the kind of hard-power move Trump has favored
The strike immediately triggered major international fallout, Venezuelan condemnation and unrest reports, and renewed debate at home over legal authorization and congressional consultation, with multiple outlets comparing the moment to the 1989 Panama operation that ended with Manuel Noriega in U.S. custody.
