Smoke is seen above buildings after explosions and the sound of low-flying planes on January 3, 2026 in Caracas, Venezuela. According to some reports, explosions were heard around 2 a.m. in Caracas and other cities near airports and military bases (photo: Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced early Saturday that the United States had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a “large-scale strike” against the South American nation, a stunning move carried out without congressional approval.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores will appear in court in the US. They were indicted in the Southern District of New York, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media.
Maduro is charged with “drug-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States,” Bondi said.
The military action came amid Trump’s months-long pressure campaign to oust the authoritarian leader. There were dozens of boat strikes in the Caribbean, which the president and members of his administration justified, without providing evidence, by saying that the boats were transporting drugs to the U.S.
“The United States of America successfully conducted a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who, along with his wife, was captured and deported from the country,” Trump wrote on his TruthSocial social media site. “This operation was carried out in cooperation with US law enforcement.”
The president will hold a news conference at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago at 11 a.m. EST.
Andy Kim: Officials ‘blatantly lied’ to Congress
The news drew the ire of Congress, which has the power to declare war. New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim has said for weeks that Trump officials told Congress the boat strikes were not about “regime change.”
“I didn’t trust them then, and now we see they blatantly lied to Congress,” Kim wrote on social media. “Trump has rejected our constitutionally required process for authorizing armed conflict because the administration knows that the American people overwhelmingly reject the risk of drawing our nation into another war.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Maduro’s capture means the Venezuelan president will be held accountable.
“President Trump’s decisive action to disrupt the unacceptable status quo and detain Maduro by executing an outstanding Department of Justice warrant is an important first step toward bringing him to justice for the drug crimes he has been charged with in the United States,” Thune said.
He added that when senators return to Congress on Monday, he looks forward to additional security briefings from Trump officials.
The top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, Republican Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, wrote on social media that without “Congressional authorization and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal attack on Venezuela.”
But Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who also co-chairs the Congressional Democratic Caucus of Venezuela, said in a statement that “the capture of Venezuela’s brutal, illegitimate ruler … is welcome news to my friends and neighbors who have fled his brutal, unlawful and disastrous rule.”
However, she called for the opportunity for Venezuelans to participate in democracy, for example the opportunity to take the oath of office for the presidential candidate who won the elections in Venezuela in the summer of 2024.
President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez was forced into exile and fled to Spain for asylum. Voting results showed Gonzalez won by a wide margin, but Venezuelan government officials, without providing evidence, determined that Maduro had won. These were elections that many countries, including the US, considered illegitimate.
Mike Lee talks to Rubio
Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee initially questioned “what, if anything, could constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization of the use of military force.”
However, Lee later changed course after speaking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“He informed me that Nicolás Maduro had been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was intended to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant,” Lee said of Rubio.
Rubio has long stated that neither the Venezuelan president nor his government are legitimate. Rubio accused him of being a drug cartel boss but provided little evidence.
For months, Democrats and a handful of Republican lawmakers have tried to stop the president’s strikes in the Caribbean, which have killed about 115 people. but Congress failed adopt several resolutions of the war powers.
The War Powers Act of 1973 is a tool for Congress to check the power of the executive branch by limiting the president’s ability to initiate or escalate military action abroad.
Venezuelans in the USA
As the United States launches military ground attacks on Venezuela, more than half a million Venezuelan immigrants are legally fighting the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status.
TPS is awarded when a nation’s homeland is deemed too threatening to return to, due to violence such as war or a major natural disaster.
More than 600,000 Venezuelans have TPS originally awarded in 2021just a day before the first Trump administration ended its term. Thanks to the Maduro regime, Venezuelans were granted fleeting protection.
Trump also attempted to apply the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to any Venezuelan citizen 14 years or older who is suspected of gang membership in order to expel them from the U.S. without due process.
Trump and Maduro also clashed after several deportation planes carrying Venezuelan immigrants landed in El Salvador, where more than 200 men were held in a brutal mega-prison known as CECOT.
Maduro ordered the move “kidnapping”, and a few months later the Venezuelans returned to their country as part of a prisoner exchange.
World leaders call for the convening of the United Nations
It is unclear what consequences the Trump administration’s decision to capture the foreign leader will have on international relations, but many world leaders have disavowed the attacks and called for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The United Nations, five miles from the New York courthouse where Maduro will stand trial, did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo condemned the attacks and said they violated Art. 2 of the United Nations Charter.
“Based on the principles of its foreign policy and its pacifist calling, Mexico urgently calls for respect for international law, as well as the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, and for an cessation of all acts of aggression against the government and people of Venezuela,” it said in a statement.
Sheinbaum Pardo called on the United Nations to “act immediately to contribute to the de-escalation of tensions, facilitate dialogue and create conditions for a peaceful and lasting solution in accordance with international law.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry also criticized the attack in Caracas, Venezuela.
“The cited justifications for these actions are not based on facts. Ideological hostility has prevailed over the pragmatic, business approach and over efforts to build relationships based on trust and predictability,” says the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on social media that the United States’ moves to capture Maduro and bomb Venezuela “cross an unacceptable line.”
“Attacking countries in flagrant violation of international law is the first step towards a world of violence, chaos and instability in which the law of the strongest prevails over multilateralism,” he wrote.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for de-escalation and said international law “and the principles of the United Nations Charter” must be respected.
