Live Updates: U.S. Captures Venezuelan Leader, Trump Says

 

Live Updates: U.S. Captures Venezuelan Leader, Trump Says

 

President Trump announced that U.S. forces had carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela” and were flying President Nicolás Maduro and his wife out of the country. The Trump administration had been building pressure on Mr. Maduro for months.

 

Tyler Pager

Updated

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:08 a.m. ET46 minutes ago

Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela, and Tyler Pager from West Palm Beach, Fla.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-united-states-strikes-venezuela

 

Here’s the latest.

President Trump said on Saturday that the United States had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and was flying him out of Venezuela, in what would be a stunning culmination to a monthslong campaign by Mr. Trump’s administration to oust the authoritarian leader.

 

Mr. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, his social media platform, and said that the United States had carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela” in an operation that was conducted “in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement.” He said that Mr. Maduro’s wife had also been captured.

 

In a brief phone interview with The New York Times after the announcement, Mr. Trump celebrated the success of the mission to capture the Venezuelan president. “A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” he said. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”

 

When asked if he had sought congressional authority for the operation or what is next for Venezuela, Mr. Trump said he would address those matters during a news conference at 11 a.m. at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla.

 

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, speaking on a state-run television station after Mr. Trump’s announcement, said that Mr. Maduro’s location was unknown and asked Mr. Trump for proof of life.

 

Earlier on Saturday, the government of Venezuela accused the United States of carrying out military attacks in the capital, Caracas, and other parts of the country after large explosions were reported at a military base in the city.

 

The Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency in response to the attacks and said they had occurred in Caracas and in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, according to a statement from the Venezuelan communications ministry.

 

Venezuela “rejects, repudiates and denounces” U.S. military aggression, the statement said. It also called on “on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”

 

For months, Mr. Trump issued threats, warnings and accusations of drug smuggling against Mr. Maduro, whom the State Department has branded the head of a “narco-terrorist” state.

 

U.S. officials have called Mr. Maduro, a self-described socialist who has led Venezuela since 2013, an illegitimate leader and have accused him of controlling criminal groups tied to drug trafficking, charges he denies.

 

Since late August, the Pentagon has amassed troops, aircraft and warships in the Caribbean. The U.S. military has attacked many small vessels that U.S. officials maintained were smuggling drugs, killing at least 115 people. And the C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last month, according to people briefed on the operation.

 

A broad range of experts on the use of lethal force have said that the strikes on small vessels amount to illegal extrajudicial killings, but the Trump administration has asserted they are consistent with the laws of war because the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels.

 

In recent weeks, the United States has also carried out a campaign against tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, throwing the country’s oil industry into disarray and jeopardizing the government’s main source of revenue.

 

The United States seized one sanctioned tanker carrying oil as it sailed from Venezuela toward Asia. It intercepted another oil vessel that was not under U.S. sanctions. And the U.S. Coast Guard tried to board a third tanker as it was on the way to Venezuela to pick up cargo.

 

Here is what else to know:

Maduro’s security: Before the U.S. operation on Saturday, the Venezuelan president had tightened his inner circle and taken to changing beds in an attempt to protect himself from a potential targeted strike or a special-forces raid.

 

U.S. buildup: Last month, C-17 cargo planes — largely used for transporting military troops and equipment — conducted at least 16 flights to Puerto Rico from American military bases, according to flight tracking data. The U.S. Southern Command has said that some 15,000 troops are already deployed in the Caribbean, one of the largest naval deployments to the region in decades.

 

Cartel accusations: In March 2020, Mr. Maduro was indicted in the United States on charges that he oversaw a violent drug organization known as Cartel de los Soles. U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Mr. Maduro is actually at odds with one group, Tren de Aragua, and analysts say the Cartel de Los Soles does not exist as a concrete organization. The term has been used to refer to the involvement of many high-ranking military officers in the drug trade, though there is no evidence that Mr. Maduro directs the effort.

 

Genevieve Glatsky and Annie Correal contributed reporting.