Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has been ‘captured and flown out of the country’ to stand trial in the United States, Donald Trump has said.
Trump released a statement that said the US had ‘successfully’ carried out a military strike after several explosions rocked the capital of Caracas early Saturday.
‘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.
‘This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.’
Senator Mike Lee later confirmed Maduro’s arrest, following a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, adding he will stand trial in the US on criminal charges.
Lee said the US strikes were ‘deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant’.
Trump announced that he would hold a press conference at Mar-a-Lago later in the morning to release more details.
Venezuela’s government slammed the United States for attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states.
A column of smoke rises during multiple explosions in the early hours of the morning, in Caracas
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas
Pedestrians run after explosions were heard in Caracas
Republican senator Mike Lee has said Nicolas Maduro was arrested to stand trial in the US on criminal charges
Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke were being heard and seen in Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, witnesses told Reuters.
Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas. Another military installation in the capital was without power.
Blasts began at 1:50am local time and one targeted Fort Tiona, which is where the Venezuelan ministry of defense is headquartered.
People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.
‘The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes in the distance,’ said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. ‘We felt like the air was hitting us.’
Venezuela’s government, in a statement, called on its supporters to take to the streets.
‘People to the streets!’ the statement said. ‘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 President Maduro had ‘ordered all national defense plans to be implemented’ and declared ‘a state of external disturbance’.
Venezuela’s communications ministry told The New York Times it ‘rejects, repudiates, and denounces’ US military aggression.
State television did not interrupt its programming and aired a report on Venezuelan music and art.
Trump has repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela, amid efforts to pressure Maduro to leave office, including expanded sanctions and a ramped-up US military presence in the region.
More than two dozen US strikes have taken place on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea in recent months.
Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke were being heard and seen in Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, witnesses told Reuters. It is not immediately clear what caused the blasts
Soldiers guard the area around the Miraflores presidential palace after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard
‘At this moment they are bombing Caracas’, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on X. ‘Alert everyone — they have attacked Venezuela. They are bombing with missiles. The (Organization of American States) and the UN must meet immediately.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House. The Pentagon and US Southern Command declined comment.
The blasts came amid growing tensions between Trump and Maduro’s regime, with the first military land strike on Venezuela taking place on Christmas Eve.
Multiple sources said the CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela that day on a port facility believed to have been storing drugs bound for America.
Trump confirmed the Christmas Eve strike on Monday, days after he casually discussed in a radio interview the attack on a facility ‘where the ship comes from.’
The strike, which took place on a port dock authorities believe was the home base of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months, signaled a further escalation of tensions between the two countries.
Multiple sources have now told CNN that the drone strike was carried out by the CIA, after Trump refused to weigh in on the theory.
Asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said: ‘I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was.’
Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke were being heard and seen in Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, witnesses told Reuters. It is not immediately clear what caused the blasts
The CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela that Donald Trump casually confirmed in a radio interview last week in a further escalation of tensions between the two countries
But Trump has previously said that he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.
Sources said the strike took place on a remote dock on the coast of Venezuela believed to used by the Tren de Aragua gang to stockpile and transfer drugs.
The CIA received intelligence support from US Special Operations Forces. No one was killed and there was nobody at the facility when the attack took place.
It is part of an escalating effort to target what the Trump administration says are boats smuggling drugs bound for the United States.
It moves closer to shore strikes that so far have been carried out by the military in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Speaking on WABC on December 26, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela.
‘I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the – where the ships come from,’ the President said during a call-in with radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who was filling in for Sid Rosenberg.
‘Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard,’ Trump confirmed.
Multiple explosions have been reported in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas amid Donald Trump’s escalating threats against its leader Nicolas Maduro (pictured)
The President said since late November that the US is shifting away from maritime attacks on drug boats and will ‘soon’ be conducting land strikes in Venezuela.
Starting on September 2, 2025, the Department of War has been conducting strikes against suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and Atlantic.
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.
The US Southern Command carried out its latest ‘lethal strike’ on Monday, killing two alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ in international waters.
But Trump has said that land targets are ‘much easier’ and has hinted at the shift with a series of comments warning ‘land strikes will start very soon’ and ‘soon we will be starting the same program on land’.
He has also warned Maduro it would be ‘smart’ to step down, but has not gone as far as to confirm that the US military operations are to force regime change.
On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking.
Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the US.