President Donald Trump said the United States “successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela,” and said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife “were arrested and flown out of the country.”
Witnesses said that the announcement on Trump’s social media platform came shortly before 4:30 a.m., a few hours after several explosions were heard in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and photos and videos showed plumes of smoke and a large fireball in the night sky.
FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro waves as he holds the hand of his wife Celia Flores during a swearing-in ceremony for new community organizations, as US President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up pressure on Maduro’s government, in Caracas, Venezuela, December 1, 2025.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
Trump said the operation was carried out in cooperation with US law enforcement authorities, and said he would hold a press conference at 11 a.m. from Mar-a-Lago.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, “will soon face the wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts” on a series of charges in New York, including “narcotics terrorism conspiracy” and “conspiracy to import cocaine” as well as weapons charges. Maduro has been facing charges in New York for years.
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Maduro was flown to New York. While sources did not specify where Maduro is being held, defendants awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan are typically detained at the MDC in Brooklyn.
The operation that led to Maduro’s capture was carried out by the military’s Delta Force after the CIA pinpointed the leader’s exact location, according to two people familiar with the operation. Delta Force is an elite special operations group of soldiers trained in covert counter-terrorism operations and hostage rescue.
One person told ABC News that Trump gave the green light to arrest Maduro several days ago, and forces were prepared to strike on Christmas Day, but were delayed by military airstrikes in Nigeria against ISIS. Subsequent opportunities were partly postponed due to the weather, the source said.
Details of the operation were first reported by CBS.
In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, President Trump celebrated what he called the success of the mission to capture Maduro, whom the United States has considered the head of a foreign terrorist organization since his designation in November.
“There’s a lot of good planning and a lot of great troops and great people,” Trump told the New York Times. “It was a great process actually.”
Asked whether he had sought congressional authorization for the operation or what would happen next for Venezuela, Trump said he would address those matters during his press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning.
“No further action” is expected
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in an
According to Lee, Rubio said that Maduro was “arrested by American personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States,” and that “kinetic action” was taken to protect those executing the arrest warrant.
He also said that Rubio told him he did not expect “any further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody.”
“This was a very dangerous operation,” said Mick Mulroy, a senior Pentagon official and ABC contributor who is a former CIA officer. “It required precise intelligence, detailed planning and flawless execution by the Delta operators and all the support, especially [Joint Special Operations Command] “The air component, to pull it in the way they did.”
Republicans in the House and Senate praised Trump’s actions, with Senator Rick Scott, of Florida, saying that “a new day is here for Venezuela and Latin America” in a post on X, and Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, saying that Maduro “was not just an illegitimate dictator; he was also running a large-scale drug trafficking operation.”
But this measure was criticized by Democrats.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, R-Ariz., criticized Trump’s move, calling it “the second unprovoked war of my lifetime” in a post on X. “This war is illegal, and it is embarrassing that we have gone from global policeman to global bully in less than one year. There is no reason we should be at war with Venezuela.”
The latest events come amid escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela, including the buildup of US military forces in the Caribbean and the targeting of alleged drug smuggling boats.
There were about 15,000 American soldiers in the area, in addition to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford.
The operation also comes shortly after the first known ground strike was carried out against a pier where Trump said drugs were being loaded onto boats.
A night view of Caracas taken after a series of explosions were heard on January 3, 2026. Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling planes flying, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on January 3, an AFP journalist reported. The explosions come at a time when US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a naval task force in the Caribbean, raised the possibility of launching ground strikes against Venezuela.
Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images
International reaction
The Venezuelan government issued a statement condemning what it called “the dangerous military aggression committed by the current government of the United States of America” in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
(FILES) (COMBO) This set of images created on August 07, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump (left) in Washington, D.C., on July 9, 2025, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (right) in Caracas on July 31, 2024.
Jim Watson, Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images
In addition, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the implementation of national defense plans and declared “a state of external unrest throughout the national territory,” according to the statement.
Russia condemned this action, describing it as an “act of armed aggression against Venezuela” and said it wanted to prevent “further escalation,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said, “Alert the world: Venezuela has been attacked!” But Trump ally and Argentine President Javier Miley praised the move.
The United States has long viewed Maduro as the head of a corrupt dictatorial regime. In 2024, Maduro declared victory after a widely contested presidential election for a third term.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives with his wife Celia Flores to deliver his annual speech to parliament in Caracas on January 15, 2025. President Donald Trump said on January 3, 2026, that US forces arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large-scale strike” on the South American country.
Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images
The United States recently declared Maduro head of the terrorist organization
In an unprecedented move in November, the Trump administration declared Maduro head of a foreign terrorist organization, citing alleged ties to drug cartels, which Maduro denied.
This designation placed the Venezuelan leader on the same list as terrorist networks such as Al-Qaeda and the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. In August, Rubio announced that the United States had increased the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.
Maduro has faced terrorism and drug charges in the United States since 2020, when federal prosecutors in New York accused him of partnering with a Colombian rebel group to “flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and well-being” of the nation.
A photo of the fire at Fuerte Teona, Venezuela’s largest military complex, after a series of explosions in Caracas on January 3, 2026. Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling planes flying, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on January 3, an AFP journalist reported. The explosions come at a time when US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a naval task force in the Caribbean, raised the possibility of launching ground strikes against Venezuela.
Luis Jaime/AFP via Getty Images
The charges include terrorism and drug conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to possess weapons. Prosecutors allege that Maduro and 14 current or former officials ran a large-scale criminal enterprise over the past 20 years, using state resources to fuel the international drug trade, including in the United States.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
