Trump says US will 'run Venezuela' after President Nicolas Maduro captured in raid
Donald Trump has said the US is going to "run" Venezuela to clear the way for a "safe" transition of power after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured in a US raid.
It comes after Trump confirmed on Saturday morning that the US had carried out "a large scale strike against Venezuela" and said the president's wife Cilia Flores had also been taken.
Trump said the couple were aboard the US warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they will face prosecution.
On his Truth Social platform, the president shared a picture of Maduro wearing ear defenders and what appears to be a blindfold.
“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a news conference where he boasted that “no nation in the world could achieve what America achieved”.
here were no visible signs of the US running the South American country as early Saturday afternoon, however, with the nation's security forces still controlling key sites.
US attorney general Pam Bondi said earlier that Maduro and his wife would face charges after being indicted in New York. Sources told ABC News that Maduro was being flown to New York.
Two sources familiar with the plans told ITV News' North American partner CNN that Maduro is expected to briefly stop at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to New York, partly because this allows the transfer to be made more quickly.
Although it is unclear where he will be held after his arrival in the US, defendants awaiting trial in federal court are typically held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre.
The attorney general said the new indictment accuses Maduro of leading a “a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.”
It alleges that the drug trafficking efforts “enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite”.
US authorities allege that Maduro partnered with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to bring tonnes of cocaine into the US, according to the indictment.
Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tonnes of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment, on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or via planes from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.
While the World Drug Report 2025, published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) earlier this year, does list Venezuela as a country through which cocaine is transported, it says the main countries that produce the drug are Cocaine, Peru and Bolivia.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but it was not previously known his wife had been and it wasn’t clear if Bondi was referring to a new indictment.
It is not clear what the legal authority was for the attack, which echoed the US invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 – exactly 36 years ago on Saturday.
The US is now deciding next steps for Venezuela, Trump told Fox News on Saturday, adding: “We'll be involved in it very much... We can’t take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off.”
At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas around 2am local time on Saturday and a state of emergency was subsequently declared in Venezuela.
Trump said during Saturday's conference that "the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have", adding: "It was dark and it was deadly."
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández said that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Fort Tiuna military installation when they were captured.
“That’s where they bombed," he said. “And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”
Describing the raid, Trump told Fox News: "The team did an incredible job. They rehearsed and practised like nobody's ever seen. And I was told by real military people that there's no other country on earth that can do such a manoeuvre.
"I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would've seen the speed, the violence, you know, they say that, the speed the violence, they used that term, it was just an amazing thing."
The Venezuelan government published a statement denouncing the alleged military aggression by the United States in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
"Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression carried out by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and population in civilian and military locations in the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira," the statement said.
“People to the streets!” it added. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”
Under Venezuelan law the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would take power. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.
“We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said. “We demand proof of life.”
People in Caracas have told ITV News that the atmosphere in the city is currently calm, and that most people are waiting for more information from Donald Trump, who is expected to give a press conference at 4pm UK time.
It comes as the US military has been targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in recent months.
Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike 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.
As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115, according to the Trump administration.
Trump said that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as a necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the US, but Maduro has decried the US operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Pedestrians were seen running down streets in various neighbourhoods while several parts of the city were left without power. Smoke was also seen rising from a Venezuelan military base hangar.
The Federal Aviation Authority has banned US commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace over "ongoing military activity", while Venezuela has requested a UN Security Council meeting in response to the US attack.
“No cowardly attack will prevail against the strength of this people, who will emerge victorious,” Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said on Telegram, sharing the letter sent to the UN.
On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking.
President Maduro has previously said the US wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.
Trump has threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land for months. The US had also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.
How has the world reacted?
Leaders across the world have responded to the US' actions in Venezuela.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was no involved "in any way" in the strikes on Venezuela, and said that he wanted to "establish facts" and speak to Donald Trump.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey have called on Starmer to condemn the US president over the strikes, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said "it may be a good thing" if the strikes "make China and Russia think twice".
Meanwhile the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has advised against all travel to Venezuela, warning that ongoing instability "could lead to closure of Venezuelan borders and airspace".
It said this comes after: “On 3 January, Venezuelan authorities announced a ‘state of external commotion’ due to air strikes on targets across the country. This could lead to closure of Venezuelan borders and airspace.”
The FCDO advises those already living or travelling in Venezuela to "shelter in place", while being "prepared to change your plans quickly if necessary".
“You should have a ‘personal emergency plan’, including practical steps for leaving the country or staying safe during a crisis, that does not depend on support from the UK government,” the department adds.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called for “immediate clarification” on the situation in Venezuela, while Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the action "recalls the worst moments of interference in the politics of Latin America and the Caribbean and threatens the preservation of the region as a zone of peace".
“We are extremely concerned by reports that Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife were forcibly removed from the country during today’s aggressive actions by the United States,” the ministry said in a statement.
The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X: “The EU has repeatedly stated that (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition.”
also BBC livefeed
