WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Saturday's military operation that led to the ouster of Nicolás Maduro a major success as he offered a vague plan for his administration “to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can take place.

While there are no visible signs of a U.S. presence on the ground in Caracas, Trump was demonstrating chutzpah that's become the trademark of his foreign policy approach. It's one marked by a grand confidence that his will on the international stage is an immovable force.

“This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” Trump declared at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The president strode into office with a promise to turn the page on America's decades of foreign entanglements. But on Saturday, he committed the U.S. to help Venezuela usher in a period of “peace” and “justice” after decades of rule by strongmen.

The president's pledge to a Venezuela project comes as he finds himself struggling to bring about a permanent peace between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and find an endgame to Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

But the path ahead is treacherous. The White House will need to grapple with any power vacuum caused by Maduro's ouster and inevitable complications of trying to maintain stability in a country that’s already endured years of hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages and brain drain despite its vast oil wealth.

It also remains to be seen what lessons U.S. adversaries may take from Trump’s decision to demonstrate American might in its sphere of influence in the aftermath of Trump's play in Caracas. China’s Xi Jinping has vowed to annex the self-ruled island of Taiwan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin has designs on neighbor Ukraine and diminishing NATO’s eastern flank.

Yet Trump was unflinching in his confidence that the bad actors of the old government will be pushed aside as he helps make Venezuela “great again." He also sought to reassure American taxpayers that they won't be on the hook for his plan to help out Caracas.

“The money coming out of the ground is very substantial,” Trump said. “We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend."

Trump hasn't shied away from flexing U.S. military might even as he has vowed to keep America out of war. He's now twice used U.S. forces to carry out risky operations against American adversaries. In June, he directed U.S. strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites.

Saturday's action stirred fresh anxiety in capitals around the world that have sought to adjust to a new normal in Trump 2.0, where the idea of the U.S. trying to find global consensus on issues of war and peace is now passe.

What's next for Venezuela?

European allies had expressed concern as Trump built up a massive presence of troops in the Caribbean in recent months and carried out dozens of lethal strikes on suspected drug smugglers — many that the administration claimed were effectively an arm of the Maduro government.

Now the Trump administration’s dead-of-night extradition of Maduro and his wife and its plans to “run" the country, even temporarily, are raising stark new questions about the legality of the U.S. moves under a broader campaign against the South American nation.

Maduro was hardly viewed as a choir boy by the international community. His 2018 and 2024 elections were seen as riddled with irregularities and viewed as illegitimate.

But many U.S. allies greeted news of Maduro's capture with a measure of trepidation.

European Commission President António Costa said he had “great concern” about the situation in Venezuela following the U.S. operation.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said “the military operation that led to the capture of Maduro infringes the principle of the non-use of force that underpins international law.”

The criticism from some Democrats over Trump's military action to oust Maduro was immediate.

“This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year.” Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona wrote on X. “There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned what it called a U.S. “act of armed aggression” against Venezuela in a statement posted on its Telegram channel Saturday. The ouster of Maduro, who was backed by the Russians, comes as Trump is urging Putin to end his war on Ukraine.

“Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, outside intervention,” the statement said.

Similarly, China's foreign ministry in a statement condemned the U.S. operation, saying it violates international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Capture follows months of pressure

The operation was the culmination of a push inside the administration led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other like-minded foes of Maduro who have been urging Trump to take action against the Venezuelan leader for years.

In south Florida — the epicenter of the Venezuelan diaspora opposition to Maduro that has influenced Rubio’s thinking — Saturday’s operation was cheered as an era-changing moment for democracy.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, said he had spoken to Rubio and thanked Trump for having “changed the course of history in our hemisphere. Our country & the world are safer for it,” he wrote on X, comparing Maduro’s ouster to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Trump: Venezuela has no chance without his intervention

Maduro had sought a pathway to exit from power while saving face.

Venezuelan government officials had floated a plan in which Maduro would eventually leave office, The Associated Press reported in October.

The proposal called for Maduro to step down in three years and hand over to his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who would complete Maduro’s six-year term that ends in January 2031. Rodriguez would not run for reelection under the plan.

But the White House had rejected the proposal because the administration questioned the legitimacy of Maduro’s rule and accused him of overseeing a narco-terrorist state.

Maduro earlier this week said Venezuela was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking and work with Washington on promoting U.S. further investment in the Venezuelan oil industry. Trump said Maduro was recently offered chances to surrender but declined.

Rubio held a long phone conversation on Saturday with Rodriguez, Trump said. In an address to the nation, she demanded the U.S. free Maduro but left open the possibility of dialogue with Trump.

“If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back. We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally,” Trump said. “We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in, invest billions and billions of dollars. ... And the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Maduro "F’d around and found out." He added adversaries of the U.S. should “remain on notice” that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”

“Welcome to 2026," Hegseth said. “Under President Trump, America is back.”

Venezuela’s opposition says the rightful president is the exiled politician Edmundo González, an ally of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Trump said he wasn't ready to commit to a certain leader but pledged his administration has to remain “very involved” in Venezuela.

“We can’t take a chance of letting somebody else run it — just take over where (Maduro) left,” Trump said.

US plans to 'run' Venezuela and tap its oil reserves, Trump says, after operation to oust Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicolás Maduro from power and removed him from the country, President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American nation and its autocratic leader and months of secret planning resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro's capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

Venezuela’s vice president demanded in a speech that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader.

Maduro and his wife, seized overnight from their home on a military base, were aboard a U.S. warship on their way to New York to face prosecution for a Justice Department indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The legal authority for the operation was not immediately clear, though the Trump administration described it — and earlier deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea — as necessary to stem the flow of dangerous drugs.

Trump also claimed the U.S. government would help run the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate signs of that. Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.

“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference where he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, that painted the regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country's leader.

Trump posted a photo on social media showing Maduro wearing a sweatsuit and a blindfold on board the USS Iwo Jima.

Early morning attack

The operation followed a monthslong Trump administration effort to push the Venezuelan leader, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. 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 U.S. began strikes in September.

Maduro had decried prior military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday as Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights" in the capital city of Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.

“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”

Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro's government accused the U.S. of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets.

The attack lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard. Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured but none were killed.

Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.

Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without electricity.

Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. But Rodriguez made clear during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power. She called for Maduro's release and pronounced him president.

“There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros," she said.

Some streets in Caracas fill up

Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.

Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a demonstration of how polarizing a figure Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture and celebrate it.

At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro’s return.

“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”

Earlier, armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party.

In other parts of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack, as residents absorbed events. Some areas remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.

“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn’t sleep.”

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, people waved Venezuelan flags and banged pots and pans as vehicles passed by honking at them.

In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”

Questions of legality

 

Some legal experts raised immediate concerns about the operation's legality.

Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast. Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on "its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”

Congressional leaders were not notified by the Trump administration about the military action until early Saturday morning, after it was already underway, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said was necessary to preserve the operation's integrity.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called it a “decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives" and said the Trump administration was working to schedule briefings.

The Latest: Trump says US will run Venezuela at least temporarily after military option

President Donald Trump insisted Saturday that the U.S. government would run Venezuela after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicolás Maduro from power and removed him from the country.

Hours after the operation, Trump said the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American country and its autocratic leader and months of secret planning resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The legal authority for the strike — and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand — was not immediately clear. The stunning, lightning-fast American military action, which plucked a nation’s sitting leader from office, echoed the U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 — exactly 36 years ago Saturday.

Maduro and his wife, captured overnight from their home, were being transported via a U.S. warship to New York, where they were to face criminal charges. The U.S. is now evaluating next steps for Venezuela, Trump said Saturday on Fox News, “We’ll be involved in it very much.”

Here's the latest:

German leader calls for stability in Venezuela

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement Saturday that Nicolás Maduro led Venezuela to disaster and noted that Germany, like many other countries, didn’t recognize his presidency after the South American nation’s last election.

Merz said that a legal classification of the U.S. intervention is “complex” and “we will take time” on the matter.

He said that political instability must not arise in Venezuela now and that it’s important to ensure “an orderly transition to a government legitimized by elections.”

Schumer says Trump actions in Venezuela ‘reckless’

The Senate Democratic leader said, “The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said the Trump administration had assured him multiple times it was not pursuing regime change or taking military action in Venezuela.

“Clearly, they are not being straight with Americans,” he said.

Rubio hints Cuba could be next after Trump takes Maduro out of Venezuela

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hinting that Cuba could be the next target of the Trump administration’s push to restore American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Rubio said he would be a bit concerned if he were a Cuban government official following the overnight U.S. military operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit,” said Rubio, who has had a long preoccupation with both Venezuela and Cuba.

The U.S. has had a long history of military interventions in Latin America, including its tacit support for the unsuccessful 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion led by Cuban exiles aimed at toppling Fidel Castro.

Venezuela's UN ambassador says his country has right to self defense

In a letter sent to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday, the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.N. warned that in light of the U.S. strikes, the country “reserves the inherent right to self defense.”

The letter from Ambassador Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta, obtained by AP, goes on to request an urgent meeting of the 15-member council and condemnation and cessation of U.S. actions.

“What began more than four months ago as a police fantasy is now showing its true face: this is a colonial war aimed at destroying our republican form of government, freely chosen by our people, and at imposing a puppet government that allows the plundering of our natural resources, including the world’s largest oil reserves,” Acosta wrote.

Trump says Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez sworn in as president

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.

Earlier, opposition leader María Corina Machado said that the opposition candidate Edmundo González should assume power, saying that he rightfully won the 2024 presidential election.

 

Trump shares photo of captured Maduro

The president posted a photo on social media showing Maduro wearing a sweatsuit and a blindfold with the caption: “Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima.”

Maduro appeared to be wearing a flotation device around his neck. Next to him was someone wearing a jacket that had a DEA logo.

Maduro also had protective headphones on his ears and appeared to be lifting a water bottle with both arms to drink.

Trump says he spoke to Maduro as recently as last week

Trump told Fox News he spoke to Maduro several times, including most recently a week ago.

Maduro denied that in an interview on New Year’s Eve, saying he had only spoken to Trump in November.

Trump’s action against Maduro contrasts with clemency granted to ex-Honduras leader

Trump’s dramatic action against Maduro is the polar opposite of the clemency he granted to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Trump in December pardoned Hernández though he was sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison for helping drug traffickers to safely move hundreds of tons of cocaine north through his country to the U.S.

Hernández, who enjoyed support from officials in the first Trump administration, was convicted by a U.S. jury in New York — which Maduro is now set to face.

When asked in an interview with Politico about the pardon, Trump said, “I don’t know him” and “I know very little about him,” but added that he was told that Hernández “was set up.”

“The country, uh, deals in drugs, like probably you could say that about every country, and because he was the president, they gave him like 45 years in prison,” he said.

Justice Department released a new indictment of Maduro and wife

The 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.”

U.S. authorities allege that Maduro partnered with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to bring tons of cocaine into the U.S., according to the indictment.

Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment. The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or via planes from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.

UN is ‘deeply alarmed’ by the US strike

The United Nations said it was “deeply alarmed” by the U.S. strikes and reported detention of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. It expressed concern that the escalation was a violation of international law.

“These developments constitute a dangerous precedent,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, said in a statement. Dujarric said the U.N. worried about the larger implications for Latin America and the Caribbean and called on “all actors in Venezuela” to respect human rights and the rule of law.

China slams US strike in Venezuela

China strongly condemned the U.S. strike in Venezuela and the action against its president, the Foreign Ministry said, adding the Beijing government was “deeply shocked” and firmly opposed to the operation.

“Such hegemonic acts of the U.S. seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean region,” it said.

It called on the U.S. to comply with international law and the principles of the U.N. Charter, urging it to stop violating the sovereignty and security of other nations.

Trump says a helicopter was hit and ‘a few’ US members were injured in Venezuela

Trump said a helicopter was hit during the operation in Venezuela and a few U.S. members were injured, but he believed none were killed.

“A couple of guys were hit, but they came back and they’re supposed to be in pretty good shape,” he said.

He said the U.S. lost no aircraft in the operation.

“We got it all back. One of them was hit pretty hard but—a helicopter—but we got it back.

“We had to do it because it’s a war,” he added a few moments later.

FAA imposes airspace restriction on Puerto Rico

The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed a temporary airspace restriction on Puerto Rico’s international airport and surrounding regions.

An announcement by Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan posted on the social media site X said the restriction was placed because of the “security situation related to military activity” in Venezuela.

As a result, most commercial airlines to and from the airport that are operated by U.S. airlines have been suspended or may be canceled.

Foreign airlines and military aircraft are not included in this restriction, the statement said. “Passengers are urged to check the status of their flight directly with their airline before heading to the airport.”

Trump dismisses criticism he did not seek congressional permission for Venezuela strike

Trump brushed off criticism from U.S. Democratic lawmakers that he did not seek permission from Congress ahead of time and that the strike was illegal. He called his Democratic critics “weak, stupid people” and blaming his political opponents for inflation in the U.S.

He said the operation in Venezuela was “really genius.”

“All they do is complain,” he said of the Democrats.

“They should say, ‘Great job.’ They shouldn’t say, ‘Oh Gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’ You know, the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years,” Trump said.

Trump says he proposed to the Mexican president that US take out cartels

Trump said the operation in Venezuela “wasn’t meant to be” a message to Mexico, but then he has proposed to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that the U.S. “take out” cartels in her country and suggested the U.S. might take action.

“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman. But the cartels are running Mexico. She’s not running Mexico. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said.

He said he’s asked Sheinbaum numerous times, “Would you like us to take out the cartels?” but she has said no.

“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” Trump said.

Maduro and his wife are on a US warship, Trump says

Trump told Fox News that the couple were aboard the U.S. warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they will face prosecution.

Trump says US will decide on what’s next for Venezuela

President Donald Trump said in an interview Saturday morning that the United States will be making decisions on what is next for Venezuela after capturing the Latin American country’s president and flying him out of the country.

“We’ll be involved in it very much” as to who will govern the country, Trump said.

“We can’t take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News hours after the capture.

Maduro was at his home when he was seized in US operation, party leader tells AP

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Nicolás Maduro and his wife were at their home within the Ft. 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.”

Vice President JD Vance says Maduro found out that Trump ‘means what he says’

 

Vice President JD Vance said in a statement on X: “The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.

Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”

Celebrations erupt in Venezuelan community in South Florida

In South Florida, Venezuelans celebrated the news of Maduro’s capture at a rally held outside a South American eatery.

People wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music was playing at the event. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”

The rally took place in Doral, Florida, a city of 80,000 people surrounded by Miami sprawl and home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States.

European leaders react to Maduro’s capture by the US

— EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X that she had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the EU ambassador in Caracas. “The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint.”

— Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for “de-escalation and responsibility. International Law and the principles of the United Nations Charter must be respected,” Sánchez wrote on X.

— Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it is “extremely alarmed” and called for “immediate clarification,” according to a statement posted Saturday on the ministry’s Telegram channel. The ministry said such actions, if confirmed, would constitute “an unacceptable infringement on the sovereignty of an independent state.”

— British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. was not involved in the U.S. operation in Venezuela and that he would seek more information from Trump. Without condemning the U.S. action, Starmer said he always believes that international law should be upheld. “But I think at this stage, fast moving situation, let’s establish the facts and take it from there,” he said.

Reactions in Caracas to US strikes and Maduro’s capture are mixed

At a pro-Maduro protest in the capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd that demanded that Maduro be returned immediately.

“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. They also said: “We are here Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!” Elsewhere, residents were still taking in the events.

“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn’t sleep. I have been on the street, I just got back from Maracay, everything is blocked, everything is bad, very bad.”

“They impose the law,” electrician Alfonso Valdez said about the U.S. government. “They are the police of the world … they are assassins.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Machado’s spokespeople decline comment

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s spokespeople declined to comment on the U.S. operation.

Machado was last seen in public last month, when she emerged from 11 months in hiding and traveled to Norway, where she was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

US attorney general says Maduro and wife to face criminal charges

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says Maduro and his wife will face criminal charges after an indictment in New York.

Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Maduro was indicted in 2020 in New York, but it was not previously known that his wife had been.

US indicted Maduro on narcoterrorism charges in 2020

The Justice Department during Trump’s first term in office charged in the several indictments that Maduro had effectively converted Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups as he and his allies stole billions from the South American country.

The coordinated unsealing of indictments against 14 officials and government-connected individuals, and rewards of $55 million for Maduro and four others, attacked all the key planks of what then-Attorney General William Barr called the “corrupt Venezuelan regime,” including the Maduro-dominated judiciary and the powerful armed forces.

One indictment by prosecutors in New York accused Maduro and socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, head of the rubber-stamping constitutional assembly, of conspiring with Colombian rebels and members of the military “to flood the United States with cocaine” and use the drug trade as a “weapon against America.”

State Department officials say ‘the tyrant is gone’

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau says the military action and seizure of Maduro marks “a new dawn for Venezuela,” saying that “the tyrant is gone.”

He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reposted a post from July that said Maduro “is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.”

Sen. Lee says Rubio told him he anticipates no further action in Venezuela

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said Rubio informed him that “he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody,” the lawmaker posted on social media.

Sen. Lee says Rubio briefed him that Maduro will be tried in US

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who briefed him on the strike. Rubio told Lee that Maduro “has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.”

The White House did not immediately respond to queries on where Maduro and his wife were being flown to. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the Southern District of New York.

Colombia prepares to receive refugees from Venezuela

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, said the Colombian government convened a national security meeting before dawn Saturday and sent security forces to the border in preparation for a potential “massive influx of refugees” from neighboring Venezuela.

He said he’d also call on the U.N. 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.

Russia calls US action ‘an act of armed aggression’

Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a U.S. “act of armed aggression” against Venezuela in a statement posted on its Telegram channel Saturday.

“Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, outside intervention,” the statement said.

The ministry called for dialogue to prevent further escalation and said it reaffirmed its “solidarity” with the Venezuelan people and government, adding that Russia supports calls for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.

State Department urges Americans in Venezuela to shelter in place

The State Department issued a new travel alert early Saturday warning Americans in Venezuela urging them to “shelter in place” due to the situation.

“U.S. Embassy Bogota is aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas, Venezuela,” it said without elaboration.

“The U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, warns U.S. citizens not to travel to Venezuela. U.S. citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place.” The embassy in Bogota has been shuttered since March, 2019 but operates remotely.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted Trump’s announcement without comment, but his deputy, Christopher Landau, posted Trump’s statement, adding that it marked “a new dawn for Venezuela!” “The tyrant is gone. He will now—finally—face justice for his crimes,” Landau said.

Venezuelan VP demands proof of life for Maduro

Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez says, “We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.” He added: “We demand proof of life.”

Trump says Maduro, wife, captured

Trump said Maduro “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.” He set a news conference for later Saturday morning.

Explosions rock Caracas

The explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, early on the third day of 2026 — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. The apparent attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes, but it was unclear if more actions lay ahead, though Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out “successfully.”