The US president, Donald Trump, has said Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been captured and are on their way to New York after a “large-scale” pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region. Here is what we know so far:
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Donald Trump said “We’re going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” during a press conference about the attack on Venezuela. He has not given details.
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Trump has confirmed that the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, are heading to New York. Trump told Fox News on Saturday that the couple were taken to a ship after being captured by US forces and were headed to the US city.
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The US is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the military operation, Trump told Fox News. He said: “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”
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Trump posted a photograph of Maduro on his Truth Social platform. It appeared to show the captured Venezuelan president in handcuffs, wrap-around sun goggles and headphones.
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Trump said his administration had not spoken to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado. He said he did not think she would be able to return to lead Venezuela, saying: “She does not have the support in Venezuela; she is a very nice woman but she does not have the support.”
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Trump was asked about Cuba during the press conference on Venezuela. He said “Cuba, as you know, is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years and I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now.”
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The US Department of Justice released a new indictment against Nicolás Maduro, including his wife, Celia Flores, his son and others.
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The US vice-president, JD Vance, hailed what he called a “truly impressive operation”. Resharing Trump’s post about the action, Vance wrote: “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.”
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In a statement on X, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Maduro was “under indictment for pushing drugs in the United States”. The Republican senator Mike Lee said on Saturday that Rubio had told him he “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody”.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is deeply alarmed by US military action in Venezuela, his spokesperson has said, and considered the US intervention “a dangerous precedent”.
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Earlier, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said the pair would face criminal charges based on a 2020 New York indictment. 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”.
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Venezuela’s government urged citizens to rise up against the US assault and said Washington risked plunging Latin America into chaos with “an extremely serious” act of “military aggression”. “The entire country must mobilise to defeat this imperialist aggression,” it added. It accused the US of launching a series of attacks against civilian and military targets, largely focused on the capital, Caracas, before dawn on Saturday.
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Explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas in the early hours of Saturday. In its statement, Venezuela’s government confirmed that the city had come under attack, as well as three other states: Miranda, La Guaira and Aragua.
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Venezuela has accused the US of trying to “seize control” of its resources, in particular its oil and minerals. The country has called on the international community to denounce what it called a flagrant violation of international law that put millions of lives at risk.
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Soon after the attacks, the president of neighbouring Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called for an immediate emergency session of the UN security council.
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The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: “The UK was not involved in any way in this operation”, adding that “we should all uphold international law”. France said the US operation went against the principles of international law.
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Russia has demanded “immediate” clarification about the circumstances of Maduro’s capture. Earlier, Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the US needed to provide “proof of life” for Maduro and his wife.
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Venezuela’s allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the strikes as a violation of sovereignty. Tehran urged the UN security council to stop the “unlawful aggression”. Among leading Latin American nations, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, lauded Venezuela’s new “freedom” while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it crossed “an unacceptable line”.
