Donald Trump has confirmed that Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro and his wife have been captured and flown out of the country by the US military.
In a statement on TruthSocial, the US president said that the US carried out a ‘large scale strike’ against the South American country in the early hours of this morning.
He said: ‘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. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow.’
Trump added that there will be a news conference later today at Mar-a-Lago.
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What is next for Venezuela?
After a conversation with US state secretary, Marco Rubio, Republican senator Mike Lee said he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in custody.
The Venezuelan opposition has so far declined to comment on the ongoing crisis.
A brief statement said: ‘At this moment, there is no official statement regarding the events reported in Venezuela.
‘Any confirmed information will be disseminated in a timely manner through official channels.’
Supporters of US intervention in the country have argued it would pave the way for the opposition to take over, led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado or the opposition candidate from 2024, Edmundo Gonzalez.
For months, Machado has been saying that the opposition is ready to take power and have been preparing in secret for months, but it may not be that simple.
For change like this to happen, Maduro would have to leave, and the Venezuelan security forces would have to accept those changes.
The Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency earlier this morning as it accused the US of trying to ‘seize its strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals’ and ‘attempting to forcibly break the nation’s political independence’.
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.
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.
Footage obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city shows tracers and smoke clouding the landscape sky as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky.
Smoke was 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, her voice trembling.
‘We felt like the air was hitting us.’
Watch: Bombes out car near Caracas
Colombian president Gustavo Petro shared a video on X, showing a bombed out car near Caracas.
While the footage remains unverified, it comes after Venezuela’s vice president confirmed that multiple people – both civilians and military personnel – have been killed in the US attacks.k
Colombian president Gustavo Petro, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, said public security forces are being deployed along the border with Venezuela following the latest developments there.
He said he would also call on the United Nation Security Council to consider ‘the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.’
‘Without sovereignty, there is no nation,’ Petro wrote on social media.
He added that Colombia was also mobilising all available humanitarian and assistance capacities in case of a mass influx of refugees.
Republican senator Mike Lee has said that Maduro will stand trial in the US on criminal charges.
Posting on X, Lee said that US state secretary, Marco Rubio, told him that he ‘anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody’.
He added that Rubio said the military action was to ‘protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant’.
We have just heard from Venezuela’s executive vice president, Delcy Rodriguez.
She confirmed that multiple military personnel, officials, and civilians have been killed in the US airstrikes in the early hours of this morning.
Earlier today, a US official said that there were no US casualties during the operation.
More details are emerging about the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, which Trump called a ‘brilliant operation’.
He told the New York Times in a phone interview: ‘A lot of good planning and a lot of great, great troops and great people.’
When asked if he sought approval for the operations from Congress, or what is next for Venezuela, the president said he would address those questions during a press conference at Mar-A-Lago.
That will take place at 11am Eastern Time, or 4pm in the UK.
Maduro is understood to have been captured by the US army’s Delta Force, officials told CBS News.
Delta Force is the US military’s top counter terrorism unit.
It is not immediately clear who was running the country, or Maduro’s current whereabouts.
