The Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro, have been captured following what U.S. President Donald Trump described as an “extraordinary military operation” carried out overnight in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.
Speaking at a midday news conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said the operation targeted a heavily fortified military compound in the heart of the city and was aimed at bringing what he called an “outlaw dictator” to justice.
“Last night and early today, at my direction, the United States armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela,” Trump said. “It was an operation against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice.”
According to the president, both Maduro and his wife are now in U.S. custody and will face criminal court proceedings stemming from a 2020 U.S. Department of Justice indictment that includes charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
Earlier in the day, Trump shared a photo on social media showing a blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro aboard the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
The mission, code-named Operation Absolute Resolve, was the product of months of planning and rehearsal involving U.S. joint forces, including special operations units from multiple service branches, as well as close coordination with several U.S. intelligence agencies.
Air Force General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the operation reflected years of experience in integrating complex air, ground, space and maritime capabilities.
“Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience integrating complex air, ground, space and maritime operations,” Caine said. “We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do.”
Caine revealed that more than 150 military aircraft from across the Western Hemisphere were launched in tightly coordinated movements to provide cover for the ground-based extraction force in Caracas. He confirmed there were no U.S. casualties during the mission.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who also addressed the press, praised the operation as a defining moment for the U.S. military.
“Words can barely capture the bravery and the power and the precision of this historic operation,” Hegseth said. “What I witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit, gallantry and glory of the American warrior. This is America first; this is peace through strength.”
With Maduro removed from power, Trump announced that the United States would temporarily oversee Venezuela while a “safe transition” to a legitimate replacement government is arranged.
“We have a group of people running [Venezuela] until such a time it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for Venezuelans, give people a great way of life, and also reimburse the people in our country who were forced out of Venezuela,” Trump said.
He added that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had reportedly been sworn in following Maduro’s ouster and appeared open to working with Washington. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already spoken with Rodríguez about the country’s future.
“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said.
The capture of the Maduros marks a dramatic escalation in long-running tensions between the United States and Venezuela, which date back to the 1998 election of socialist leader Hugo Chávez. Relations deteriorated further after Chávez’s death in 2013, when Maduro assumed power and adopted an increasingly hostile stance toward Washington.
Tensions intensified sharply in late 2025, when the Trump administration began targeted strikes on vessels accused of smuggling drugs into the United States. In November 2025, the U.S. State Department designated Venezuela’s alleged state-linked criminal network, Cartel de los Soles, as a terrorist organization, a group U.S. officials claim was headed by Maduro.
With Nicolás Maduro now in custody, attention is expected to turn to the legal process ahead and to the political arrangements put in place in Venezuela, as regional and international actors monitor the situation closely.
