Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro has been captured after ‘large-scale strike’ by US

The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early on Saturday and said its president, Nicolas Maduro, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington.

The night-time operation was announced by US President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.

Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas, the capital, as Mr Maduro’s government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations.

The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.

It was not immediately clear who was running the country, and Mr Maduro’s whereabouts were not immediately known. Mr Trump announced the developments on Truth Social shortly after 4.30am Florida time.

Mr Maduro, Mr Trump said, “has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This operation was done in conjunction with US law enforcement. Details to follow.” He set a news conference for later Saturday.

Venezuela’s vice president appeared on state TV to say that the government does not know where the president and his wife are after US forces captured them.

“We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” Delcy Rodriguez said. “We demand proof of life.”

The explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, early on the third day of 2026 — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. The apparent attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes, but it was unclear if more actions lay ahead, though Mr Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out “successfully”.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on US commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of “ongoing military activity” ahead of the explosions.

Narco-terrorism 

The strike came as the Trump administration has escalated pressure on Mr Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States.

The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September.

Mr Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs.

Mr Maduro has decried the US military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.

Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighbourhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.

Explosions

Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape sky as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky.

Other footage showed an urban landscape with cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. Unintelligible conversation could be heard in the background. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.

Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.

“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”

Mr Trump is at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has spent the past two weeks for the holiday season. His public schedule showed he was set to receive an intelligence briefing on Friday evening, hours before the reported strikes.

External disturbance 

Venezuela’s government responded to the attack with a call to action.

“People to the streets!” it said in a statement. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”

The statement added that Mr Maduro had “ordered all national defence plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance”.

The website of the US embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was “aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas”.

“US citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place,” the warning said.

Inquiries to the Pentagon and US Southern Command since Mr Trump’s social media post went unanswered.

The FAA warned all commercial and private US pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country to the north, was off limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity”.

Constitutional justification 

US Senator Mike Lee posted his potential concerns, reflecting a view from the right flank in the Congress.

“I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorisation for the use of military force,” Republican Mr Lee said on X.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes.

It was not clear if the US Congress had been officially notified of the strikes.

The armed services committees which have jurisdiction over military matters, have not been notified by the administration of any actions, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.

Politicians from both political parties in Congress have raised deep reservations and flat out objections to the US attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling on boats near the Venezuelan coast and the Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.

Boat strikes

The US military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

They followed a major build-up of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.

Mr Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking.

Mr Maduro also said in a pre-taped interview aired Thursday that the US wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the pressure campaign.