October 1, 2026
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in an extraordinary nighttime operation that was accompanied by a flurry of strikes following months of escalating Trump administration pressure on the South American nation.
The U.S. is now deciding next steps for Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Saturday on Fox News, adding, “We'll be involved in it very much.”
The legal authority for the attack was not immediately clear. The stunning 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.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York. Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. The Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife for their alleged role in narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Trump said the couple were aboard the U.S. warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they will face prosecution.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation when they were captured.
Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out, and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital.
With the Venezuelan leader's whereabouts not known, the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would take power under Venezuelan law. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike, demanding proof of life for Maduro and his wife.
Maduro, Trump said, “has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.” He set a news conference for Saturday morning.
The attack itself 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’d seen and heard.
Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, the vice president, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured in the strikes but that he believed “we had nobody killed.”
It was not known if more actions lie ahead, though Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out “successfully.”
Maduro last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.
The strike followed a months-long Trump administration pressure campaign on 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.
As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35, and the number of people killed was at least 115, according to the Trump administration. Trump said that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S.
Venezuela’s government responded to the attack with a call to action: “People to the streets!”
Armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia headed into 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.”
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 power.
The website of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, urged American citizens to shelter in place.
The FAA warned all commercial and private U.S. pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country, was off limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.”
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said 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. 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.”
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