Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run’ Venezuela After Army Captures President Maduro

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured and removed from the country during a large-scale U.S. military operation, marking an extraordinary escalation in regional tensions that has drawn sharp criticism from allies and adversaries alike.

The predawn raid, which Trump approved late Friday night, saw elite Delta Force operators seize Maduro from his compound in Caracas as American warplanes systematically dismantled Venezuela’s air defenses. The Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed at Stewart Airport north of New York City Saturday afternoon to face federal drug trafficking charges that were first filed in 2020.

“We’re going to run the country” on a temporary basis during the transition and “get the oil flowing,” Trump declared at a press conference from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.

Maduro is widely accused of stealing the last election, when he was opposed by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. Opposition leader María Corina Machado had to flee to Norway to avoid being killed by Maduro’s agents. She issued a public letter to Venezuelans following the capture of Maduro and his wife.

Machado said Maduro will “face international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations.”“The time for freedom has come!” Machado, the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote in the message shared on X.

As of Saturday, it remained unclear whether Machado was in Venezuela. She fled to Norway last month in a covert operation. In an interview with CBS News in mid-December, she said she was “absolutely” in favor of President Trump’s escalating military pressure on the Maduro regime and added that she would welcome “more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go.”

Machado wrote “The time has come for popular sovereignty and national sovereignty to prevail in our country. We are going to restore order, release the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home.We have fought for years, we have given it our all, and it has been worth it. What was meant to happen is happening.This is the hour of the citizens. Those of us who risked everything for democracy on June 28th. Those of us who elected Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the legitimate President of Venezuela, who must immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces by all the officers and soldiers who comprise it.Today we are ready to assert our mandate and take power. Let us remain vigilant, active, and organized until the democratic transition is complete. A transition that needs ALL of us.

“To the Venezuelans who are currently in our country, be ready to put into action what we will be communicating to you very soon through our official channels.To Venezuelans abroad, we need you to be mobilized, engaging the governments and citizens of the world and committing them from now on to the great operation of building the new Venezuela.In these crucial hours, receive all my strength, my confidence, and my affection. We remain vigilant and in contact.VENEZUELA WILL BE FREE! We go hand in hand with God, until the end.”

The Operation

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine revealed that Trump gave final approval for the mission, designated Operation Absolute Resolve, at 10:46 p.m. Friday. Throughout the night, more than 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere, converging on Venezuela’s capital.

“As the night began, the helicopters took off with the extraction force, which included law enforcement officers, and began their flight into Venezuela at 100 feet above the water,” Caine told reporters. The assault force flew protected by drones, bombers and fighter jets that disabled Venezuelan air defenses as the helicopters approached Caracas.

Power went out across much of the capital during the operation. Trump suggested this was intentional, saying the lights had gone dark “due to a certain experience that we have.”

Despite maintaining the element of surprise, the helicopters came under fire at Maduro’s compound but remained operational. Trump said Maduro attempted to flee to a steel-reinforced safe room but “wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.” U.S. forces and FBI agents entered the compound, where Maduro and his wife surrendered.

Legal Charges

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro would face charges outlined in a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York. The document accuses Maduro and five others of operating a drug trafficking conspiracy spanning more than 25 years. The official charges include conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and to import cocaine, as well as possession of and conspiracy to possess “Machineguns and Destructive Devices.”

Prosecutors allege that Maduro and his associates worked with drug traffickers and narco-terrorists to import “thousands of tons of cocaine” into the United States, enriching himself, his family and Venezuela’s political and military elite. The indictment also accuses Maduro of using state-sponsored gangs, including Tren de Aragua, to facilitate and protect the drug-trafficking operation.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said.

International Reaction

The operation drew swift international condemnation. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the military action, calling it “a dangerous precedent” and expressing concern that “the rules of international law have not been respected.”

Venezuela’s envoy to the United Nations requested an emergency Security Council meeting to discuss what he termed “acts of aggression perpetrated by the United States of America.” Colombia and Russia backed calls for the meeting, which diplomatic sources said could occur as early as Sunday.

China condemned the capture. “China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the U.S.’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and action against its president. 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. China firmly opposes it.”

Domestic Political Fallout

The operation sparked a sharp partisan divide in Washington, with lawmakers raising constitutional concerns about Trump’s decision to bypass congressional notification.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the administration’s decision not to brief Congress beforehand, saying lawmakers have “a tendency to leak” and that “it’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.”

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine announced plans to force a vote this week on a war powers resolution he characterized as addressing “an illegal war,” requiring the removal of U.S. forces from hostilities in or against Venezuela not authorized by Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries demanded immediate briefings for the Gang of Eight and all members of Congress. “President Trump’s announced plan to run Venezuela is unacceptable,” they said in a joint statement.

Even some Republicans expressed reservations. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said bluntly, “The only country that the United States of America should be ‘running’ is the United States of America.”

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, while calling the mission “a limited scope operation” that “effectively apprehended an international criminal,” said the administration should have informed Congress sooner.

Venezuela’s Response

Trump claimed that Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s handpicked vice president who was sworn in to replace him, indicated she would cooperate with U.S. plans. “We’ll do whatever you need,” Trump said Rodriguez told administration officials, though he acknowledged “she doesn’t have another choice.”

However, Rodriguez struck a defiant tone in her first televised appearance following the operation, calling Maduro’s capture “barbaric” and an “illegal and illegitimate kidnapping.” She demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, declaring Maduro “the only president of Venezuela.”

“What they did to Venezuela today, they can do to anyone,” Rodriguez warned. “That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be done to any country.”

Context and Buildup

The operation followed months of U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and numerous warships positioned in the region. The administration had previously conducted a series of strikes on more than 30 boats it claimed were carrying drugs, some of which proved deadly.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the Federal Aviation Administration had restricted airspace over the Caribbean and Venezuela, leading multiple airlines to cancel flights. He did not specify when the restrictions would be lifted.

Questions About What Comes Next

Trump’s announcement that the United States would temporarily “run” Venezuela raised immediate questions about the scope and duration of American involvement. When pressed, Trump and administration officials provided few specifics about how the transition would work or what role Venezuelan officials would play.

Rubio suggested that Maduro had been given “multiple very, very, very generous offers” to leave Venezuela voluntarily but “chose instead to act like a wild man.” He declined to elaborate on the nature of those offers.

The secretary of state also hinted at potential action against Cuba, saying that if he lived in Havana and worked in the government, he would be “concerned, at least, a little bit.” Trump similarly suggested that Cuba, which he called “a failing nation right now,” would be “something we’ll end up talking about.”

The operation represents an unprecedented direct military intervention to remove a sitting head of state in the Western Hemisphere in recent decades, though it echoes past U.S. actions in the region, including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Notably, current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard vehemently opposed military intervention in Venezuela during Trump’s first term, when she was running for president as a Democrat. “It’s about the oil … again,” she wrote in 2019, and warned that intervention would “wreak death & destruction to Venezuelan people.”

As Maduro and his wife prepared to face American justice, the full implications of the operation remained unclear, with international leaders, U.S. lawmakers and Venezuelan officials all expressing concern about what one U.N. official termed “worrying implications for the region.”