A rchive Date
[ 04-01-2026 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Venezuela ]
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[https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-maduro-venezuela-strikes-9.7032572
Trump says U.S. is 'going to run' Venezuela until safe transition of power can take place
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro captured following U.S. strikes on Caracas
The Associated Press · Posted: Jan 03, 2026 7:34 AM EST
The United States will run Venezuela following a "large-scale strike" early Saturday that ultimately resulted in the U.S. capturing the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife, U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday.
The U.S. will lead the oil-rich country until a "proper transition can take place," he said during a news conference late Saturday morning. He claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs that the U.S. was running the country.
The U.S. hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and moved Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by Trump on social media hours after the attack.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and his wife were at their home within the Fort Tiuna military installation when they were captured.
"That's where they bombed," he said. "And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country."
Trump told Fox News earlier that Maduro and his wife are aboard a ship — the USS Iwo Jima — and headed to New York.
Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas, the capital of the oil-rich nation, early Saturday, as Maduro’s government immediately accused the U.S. of attacking civilian and military installations.
The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.
Trump first announced the developments on his Truth Social platform shortly after 4:30 a.m. ET. Maduro and his wife have since been indicted in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media platform X.
Bondi added that the couple will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts."
At the news conference late Saturday morning, Trump spoke highly of the U.S. forces and his administration's foreign policy.
"No nation in the world could achieve what America has achieved yesterday or frankly in a short period of time," he said of his administration's actions. "We are going to run the country," Trump said.
Unclear how U.S. will run Venezuela
It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela. Despite a dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas and captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, U.S. forces have no control over the country itself, and Maduro's government appears to still be in charge.
Trump did not provide specific answers to repeated questions from reporters about how the U.S. would run Venezuela.
When asked who, specifically, will lead Venezuela, Trump replied: "The people who are standing right behind me."
Trump was flanked by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who famously and accidentally included a journalist from The Atlantic in a group chat on messaging platform Signal that included sensitive intelligence about an impending military strike.
Trump also said the U.S. will run Venezuela with a group and that it's up to Rubio to work out the details. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground," he said.
Trump didn't offer a specific timeline for how long the U.S. would lead Venezuela.
Reporters asked the president and his team whether the U.S. Congress had been informed ahead of the attack, to which Rubio confirmed that it was not. "It's not the kind of mission you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission," he said.
"Congress has a tendency to leak," Trump added.
The Trump administration notified members of Congress about the military operation in Venezuela immediately afterwards, Rubio said.
Questions about country's oil
During Saturday's news conference, Venezuela's oil came up several times.
While speaking about his ambitions to rebuild Venezuelan infrastructure, which he called "old" and "rotted," Trump said he'll get the oil flowing and will sell it to several countries. He then said the wealth would "go back to the people" of Venezuela, as well as to the U.S.
Maduro has long accused Washington of wanting to take control of Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Trump also said his government's involvement in Venezuela "won't cost us a penny" because the United States would be reimbursed from the "money coming out of the ground," referring to Venezuela's oil reserves.
He said Rubio had been in touch with Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez — Maduro’s presumptive successor.
"'We'll do whatever you need,'" Trump quoted Rodriguez as saying. "She really doesn't have a choice."
The exchange is yet to be corroborated.
Earlier, opposition leader María Corina Machado said that the opposition candidate Edmundo González should assume power, saying that he rightfully won the 2024 presidential election
'Operation Absolute Resolve'
During the news conference, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared details of the operation — known as Operation Absolute Resolve. He said it took several months to plan the extraction of Maduro, with the operation requiring collaboration between every component of the U.S. Joint Forces.
Intelligence agencies and law enforcement were also part of the operation.
Caine said Trump ordered the Joint Forces to move forward on Friday night when the weather seemed adequate. He added that 150 aircraft were deployed from 20 different bases on land and sea.
Rubio was the fourth official to speak at the news conference, restating the U.S. view that Maduro was not the legitimate leader of Venezuela — an opinion that many countries share.
The situation marks Washington's most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
It was not immediately clear who was running the country. Under Venezuelan law, Rodriguez, the vice-president, would take power. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.
“We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said. “We demand proof of life."
Trump said earlier that Maduro “has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow."
Maduro was captured by elite special forces troops, a U.S. official told Reuters. The legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.
Earlier, Rubio also said Maduro will stand trial on criminal charges in the U.S. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the Southern District of New York.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said Rubio informed him that “he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody,” the lawmaker posted on social media.
Ahead of the overnight strikes, the U.S. again accused Maduro of running a "narco-state" and rigging the 2024 election, which the opposition said it won overwhelmingly.
The Venezuelan leader, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chávez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those claims and said Washington was intent on taking control of his nation's oil reserves, the largest in the world.
The explosions in Caracas — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions. Venezuela's government said civilians and military personnel died in Saturday's strikes but did not give figures, while Trump said involved U.S. forces sustained injuries but no deaths.
The attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes, and it was unclear if more actions lay ahead, though Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out “successfully."
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ban on U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of “ongoing military activity” ahead of the explosions.
No airline flights were crossing over Venezuela on Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.com. And major airlines cancelled hundreds of flights across the eastern Caribbean region and warned passengers that the disruptions could continue for days after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed restrictions.
Flights to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Aruba and other destinations near Venezuela were cancelled.
The strike came after the Trump administration spent months escalating pressure on Maduro. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels.
For months, Trump had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs. Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Some streets in Caracas fill up
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighbourhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
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 an urban landscape with cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. Unintelligible conversation could be heard in the background. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.
Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.
“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. “We felt like the air was hitting us."
Venezuela’s government responded to the attack with a call to action. “People to the streets!” it said in a statement. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”
The statement added that Maduro had “ordered all national defence plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.” That state of emergency gives him the power to suspend people’s rights and expand the role of the armed forces.
The website of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was “aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas."
“U.S. citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place,” the warning said.
With Venezuelans themselves nervously wondering what would come next, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV on a street wearing a helmet and flak jacket, urging people not to co-operate with the "terrorist enemy."
Inquiries to the Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command since Trump’s social media post went unanswered.
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 to the north, was off limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.”
©2026 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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