CBS, NEW YORK TIMES REPORT U.S. CAPTURED MADURO

 

BREAKING: U.S. Captures Venezuelan Leader, Trump Says

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Various Sources

President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela” and were flying President Nicolás Maduro and his wife out of the country. The Trump administration had been building pressure on Mr. Maduro for months.

A fire at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela's largest military complex, is seen from a distance after a series of explosions amid U.S. military strikes in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026. AFP/Getty

What to know about the U.S. military strikes on Venezuela

President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were "captured and flown out of the Country" early Saturday morning, confirming a "large scale strike" had been carried out by U.S. forces, as explosions were reported in Caracas and elsewhere.

The U.S. Army's Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture Maduro, officials told CBS News.

A Republican senator said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had indicated that Maduro would face criminal charges in the U.S., where he was indicted years ago, and that Rubio "anticipates no further action in Venezuela." The Trump administration has long accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies.

The strikes follow months of U.S. military buildup in the region, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and numerous other warships positioned in the Caribbean.

\In recent weeks the U.S. has seized two oil tankers off Venezuela, launched deadly strikes on more than 30 boats the administration says were carrying drugs, and struck what President Trump called "the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs."

Maduro's capture comes exactly 35 years after U.S. arrested Panama's Noriega

President Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday morning 35 years to the day after U.S. forces arrested another indicted Latin American leader, the late Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

A onetime U.S. ally and CIA informant, Noriega led Panama for much of the 1980s, but he fell out of favor with Washington toward the end of his reign due to allegations of drug trafficking.

Former President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, leading Noriega to hide out in the Vatican embassy before surrendering to U.S. authorities on Jan. 3, 1990. He was convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and spent 20 years in an American prison before being sent to France to serve a money laundering sentence, and then to Panama where he was imprisoned on murder and other charges.

Noriega died in Panama in 2017.

GOP senator says Rubio told him "no further action in Venezuela" expected

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah Utah early Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told him he "anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody."

In a post on X, Lee said he spoke with Rubio on the phone. He said he was told Maduro was arrested, "to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States," and "the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant."

Maduro was captured with a $50 million U.S. bounty out on him

The U.S. government has sought Maduro's arrest for years. He was indicted by a U.S. court in March 2020, accused along with more than a dozen other individuals of narco-terrorism.

Last summer, the Trump administration doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro's capture to $50 million.

Federal prosecutors alleged in 2020 that Maduro and other senior Venezuelan government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to traffic cocaine and weapons to the United States.

At the time, the Justice Department also accused Maduro of leading a criminal ring called Cártel de Los Soles, which the Trump administration designated a foreign terrorist organization last year.

Some experts have questioned the administration's characterization of Cártel de Los Soles, arguing the term refers to a loosely defined group of corrupt government officials with links to drug trafficking, not a centrally organized group.

But the Venezuelan leader has long portrayed Trump’s anti-drugs campaign as an excuse to get America’s hands on the country’s vast, and under-exploited, oil reserves in a 21st-century neocolonial adventure. The country has estimated crude oil reserves of around 300 billion barrels, the world’s largest.

Narcotics experts say Venezuela is in fact a relatively minor player in the Latin American drugs trade—virtually no coca is grown in the country and it serves as a secondary transit route for just 5 percent of the cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia, the world’s largest producer.

This is a developing story.