What we know about Maduro’s capture and US plan to ‘run’ Venezuela

The US has captured Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro after a large-scale strike on the South American country, US President Donald Trump has said.

Trump said Venezuela’s left-wing president and his wife were flown out in a military operation carried out in conjunction with US law enforcement. They have been charged with drug and weapons offences in New York.

It comes after explosions were reported across the capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, including at military bases.

The Venezuelan government deployed its armed forces and declared a national emergency.

Maduro’s capture comes after heightened tensions between the two countries, with Washington striking boats in the Caribbean it says are being used to carry drugs.

The US has accused the Venezuelan president of being personally involved in drug-smuggling and being an illegitimate leader, while Maduro has accused the US of intimidation and wanting to seize its oil.

Trump during a news conference on Saturday said the US would “run” Venezuela “until a safe and proper and judicious transition”, adding that American oil companies would also move into the country.

Here is what we know so far.

Maduro was captured by the US army’s Delta Force – the military’s top counter terrorism unit, the BBC’s US news partner CBS News reported.

A CIA source inside the Venezuelan government helped the US track Maduro’s location in the lead-up – part of an extensive intelligence network, CBS said.

Speaking alongside Trump on Saturday, Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Operation Absolute Resolve took months of planning and rehearsals, with forces waiting for the right weather.

More than 150 aircraft were used to get an extraction team into the capital.

The team came in and entered Maduro’s compound – “a house that was more like a fortress”, according to Trump – at 02:01 local time (06:01 GMT) – with the lights in Caracas having been turned off by the Americans.

The US president said Maduro tried to get into a steel-fortified safe place, made it to the door, but was unable to close it.

He added that no US forces were killed and there were “few” injuries in the operation, which he said he watched live.

Maduro and his wife were then put on a ship on their way to New York.

At the same time as the operation, loud explosions were heard in Caracas, while plumes of smoke were seen rising over the city.

Videos of explosions and helicopters flying overhead have been circulating on social media, but they have not been verified yet.

It is not known if there have been any casualties.

The Venezuelan government also said the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira were also hit.

Trump said US forces had been “prepared for a second wave” but did not have to conduct one because the first was “so powerful”.

BBC Verify is working through a number of videos showing explosions, fire and smoke in locations around Caracas to identify exactly which sites were targeted.

It has confirmed five locations, so far:

• Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, an airfield known as La Carlota
• Fuerte Tiuna, a key military facility in Caracas
• Port La Guaira, Caracas’ main conduit to the Caribbean Sea, located in Miranda state
• Higuerote Airport, also located in Miranda state, just east of Caracas
• Antenas El Volcan, a telecomms towers on Cerro El Volcan, a high peak in Miranda state

Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez on state television appealed for calm and unity, called for the release of Maduro, who she said was the “only president”, and added that Venezuela would never be a colony of any nation.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump said Rodríguez had been sworn in as president and had spoken to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him “we’ll do whatever you need”, Trump said. “She really doesn’t have a choice,” Trump added.

The country’s defence minister Vladimir Padrino López earlier claimed the strikes hit civilian areas and said the government was compiling information about dead and injured people.

He added that Venezuela would “resist” the presence of foreign troops.

Venezuela’s government issued an official statement denouncing the “extremely serious military aggression” by the US “against Venezuelan territory and population in civilian and military locations”.

It also accused the US of threatening international peace and stability and described the attack as an attempt to seize “Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals” in an attempt to “forcibly break the political independence of the nation”.

During Saturday’s news conference, Trump said the US was going “to run the country until such time as we can do a safe and proper and judicious transition”.

Asked by reporters about Venezuela’s opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace winner María Corina Machado, Trump said she did not have support or respect.

Earlier on social media, Machado had said “the hour of freedom has arrived” and called for Edmundo González Urrutia, who according to vote tallies released by her party won the 2024 election, to assume power.

Trump also said American oil companies would move in to fix infrastructure “and start making money for the country”.

He said “we’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground” which would go to people in Venezuela and to the US, adding “we’re going to get reimbursed for everything we’ve spent”.

He also said the US would sell oil to other countries.

Asked whether US troops would be deployed to Venezuela, Trump said “we’re not afraid of boots on the ground”.

US attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, had been indicted in the Southern District of New York.

They have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.

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

Nicolás Maduro rose to prominence under the leadership of left-wing President Hugo Chávez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). He succeeded Chávez as president in 2013.

In 2024, Maduro was declared winner of the presidential election, even though voting tallies collected by the opposition suggested that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won by a landslide.

He has been at odds with Trump over the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the US and the movement of drugs into the US, in particular fentanyl and cocaine.

Trump has designated two Venezuelan drug gangs – Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles – as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) and has alleged that the latter was led by Maduro himself.

The US had offered a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

In recent months, US forces have also carried out more than two dozen strikes in international waters on boats it alleges have been used to traffick drugs into the US. More than 100 people have been killed.

First Lady Cilia Flores – who was also taken to the US and indicted alongside her husband – has held a number of senior posts in Venezuela, including attorney general and president of the national assembly. She is seen as a powerful political operator in her own right.

Flores, 59, is colloquially known as Maduro’s primera combatiente (first warrior), and has often been pictured at his side during public engagements.

Like her husband, she was living under US sanctions – which were imposed during Trump’s first presidency on the allegation that she was involved in Maduro’s corrupt practices. At the time, Maduro hit back by saying: “You don’t mess with Cilia. You don’t mess with family.”

Flores is a lawyer by training, and she once fought for the release from prison of Hugo Chávez, who tried to seize control of the Venezuelan government in 1992 and later went on to become the country’s president. Her career became forever linked with Chávez’s movement.

Flores’s tenure as head of the National Assembly was not without controversy, including her decision to prohibit press access to the parliamentary chamber, and accusations of nepotism.

Flores’s relatives have previously been targeted by the Americans on similar accusations of drugs trafficking. In 2015, two of her nephews were arrested in Haiti and convicted and imprisoned in the US on drugs charges. They were later released under a 2022 prisoner swap.

The initial news of the strikes prompted the strongest reaction from Venezuela’s long-term allies.

Russia accused the US of committing “an act of armed aggression” that was “deeply concerning and condemnable”.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “deeply shocked and strongly condemns” the use of force against a sovereign country and its president.

Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a “flagrant violation of the country’s national sovereignty”.

Venezuela’s neighbours Colombia and Brazil criticised the moves.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the strikes an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America, while Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel described it as a “criminal attack”.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva wrote on X that the bombings and Maduro’s capture “cross an unacceptable line”, adding “attacking countries in flagrant violation of international law is the first step toward a world of violence, chaos, and instability”.

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric expressed “concern and condemnation” on X and called for “a peaceful solution to the serious crisis affecting the country”.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Cane accused the US of a “criminal attack”.

Meanwhile, Trump’s ally in Argentina, Javier Milei, wrote “Freedom moves forward” and “Long live freedom” on social media.

On the international stage, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is “deeply alarmed” by the strikes, with his spokesman saying in a statement it sets a “dangerous precedent”.

The UN chief is “deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected” and calls on all actors in Venezuela to engage in inclusive dialogue, in full respect of human rights and the rule of law”, his spokesman said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would “shed no tears” about the end of Maduro’s regime and would discuss the “evolving situation” in Venezuela with US counterparts.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas reiterated the bloc’s position that Maduro lacks legitimacy and that there should be a peaceful transition of power, but said the principles of international law must be respected.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the transition of power “must be peaceful, democratic, and respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people” in a post on X.

He added he hoped González – the opposition’s 2024 presidential candidate – could ensure the transition.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the legality of the US operation was “complex” and international law in general must apply. He warned that “political instability must not be allowed to arise in Venezuela”.

The office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the government believed “external military action is not the way to end totalitarian regimes” but said it considered “defensive intervention” against hybrid attacks to be “legitimate, as in the case of state entities that fuel and promote drug trafficking”.