The U.S. says it has carried out a direct military operation inside Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been pushing for regime change in Venezuela, claimed the move was a “law enforcement action” tied to drug trafficking charges filed in New York.
Drop Site News Latin America Desk head José Luis Granados Ceja spoke to Breaking Points to report on what is known so far, why the narco-trafficking pretext is flimsy, and how the operation fits a decades-long U.S. regime-change campaign against Venezuela.
Read more reporting from José Luis Granados Ceja below.
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People watch the smoke rising from Port of La Guaira after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard on January 03, 2026 in La Guaira, Venezuela. Explosions were heard in Caracas and other cities near airports and military bases around 2 am. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a "large-scale" attack on Venezuela, with the U.S. capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. (Photo by Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—United States Special Forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores following an overnight U.S. bombing campaign that struck Caracas and the Venezuelan states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira early Saturday morning.
Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed that the president’s whereabouts were not known and demanded that the U.S. provide proof-of-life. U.S. President Donald Trump said that Maduro and his wife had been abducted and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima—part of the U.S. Naval fleet in the Caribbean stationed off the coast of Venezuela since September—adding that he would eventually be brought to New York to face charges by federal prosecutors.
The Department of Justice alleged that Maduro was the head of a transnational terrorist organization, with Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealing a new 25-page indictment Saturday morning. The indictment charges the Venezuelan president, his wife, and his adult son with “narco-terrorism.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been pushing for regime change in Venezuela, described the attack as a “law enforcement” operation and said members of Congress were not advised beforehand, nor was authorization sought. Trump said Rubio had spoken with Vice President Rodríguez, who he claimed would support U.S. efforts. Rodríguez, however, is considered a close Maduro ally and went on Venezuelan television denouncing the U.S. attack and kidnapping.
The Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency and issued a statement in response to the kidnapping and attacks, saying “The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the political independence of the nation…They will not succeed.”
Rodríguez called on Venezuela’s armed forces, the civilian reserve force of the Bolivarian Militia, and the country’s grassroots organizations to take to the streets to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty. “The people must mobilize to defend their natural resources, the right to independence, peace, development, and the future; a free homeland, without any kind of external tutelage, we will never again be slaves!” she told Venezuelan news outlet VTV by phone.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the latest U.S. attack left civilian casualties, while Venezuelan journalist Madelaine García showed images of burned out Venezuelan anti-aircraft batteries inside the La Carlota military site.
Drop Site News contributor Andreína Chávez reported that normally busy areas of the city were empty in the early morning, but a large crowd had already assembled outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace demanding the return of Maduro to Venezuelan territory.
“I heard right next to my home detonations, bombs. My mom and siblings were scared and crying,” Christian Peach Ortiz, a Venezuelan man from the state of Miranda at the protest, told Drop Site. “I told them to get up, get the pets and calm down because we were going to stand up. We understood immediately what was going on: the United States empire has a history of domination towards the people of the global south...They’re trying to recompose the geopolitical balance of the world,” he added.
Peach Ortiz also issued a direct call to people in the United States to protest against the attack on Venezuela, saying his country is on the frontlines of the fight against U.S. imperialism on the continent. “We need you to raise your voice; we need you to protest; we need you to condemn the U.S. empire that finally needs to die to save the entire world and humanity for a model of life and reconstruction,” Peach Ortiz said.
U.S. Belligerence in the Western Hemisphere
The direct attack on Venezuela follows months of escalations by the U.S. that were first sold as a counter-narcotics operation. The U.S. has mobilized a large force off the coast of Venezuela, with 15,000 personnel operating in the area, and engaged in kinetic strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats that eventually saw over 100 people killed in what UN experts called “extrajudicial executions.”
Trump called it a “spectacular assault… in the heart of Caracas” from a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, comparing the attacks to similar U.S. attacks in Nigeria and against Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani, referencing his assassination by the first Trump administration in January 2020. Trump added that “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
“We are going to run the country,” said Trump, contrary to speculation that the U.S. would not try to occupy the country. Trump added that the U.S. was prepared to launch a second wave of attacks, warning Venezuelan leadership that they are at risk of a similar kidnapping operation. Trump said he was prepared to put “boots on the ground.”
The U.S. president also spoke of facilitating the entry of U.S. oil companies into Venezuela, repeating his claim that Venezuela had “stolen” their oil. He added that this revenue would pay for the United States’s administration of the country and some would be used as reparations.
Earlier in the day, Trump did not endorse a takeover by Venezuela’s far-right opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and wrote “The time for freedom has come!” in a letter posted on X. In the afternoon press conference, Trump said of Machado that “It would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the respect of her country.”
Numerous countries from the region and beyond condemned the U.S. operation, including Mexico and Brazil, with the former calling on the UN to act “immediately.” China, whose special envoy for Latin America was in meetings with Maduro in Caracas, said it was “deeply shocked and strongly condemns the U.S. for recklessly using force against a sovereign state and targeting its president.”
With reporting by Andreína Chávez and Cira Pascual Maquina in Caracas.
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