President Donald Trump confirmed early Saturday in a social media post that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been taken into U.S. custody, just hours after reports of multiple explosions ringing out across Caracas surfaced.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the U.S. carried out a “large-scale strike” in the South American country that allowed the seizure of both Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both are said to be headed to the U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that the pair will face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, among other charges.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said, noting Maduro and Flores were indicted in the Southern District of New York.
Previously, in 2020, Maduro was named in an indictment that accused him, and other Venezuelan figures, of turning the South American country into a criminal enterprise that weaponized the drug trade against the U.S. through a partnership with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
“Maduro and the other defendants expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and well-being of our nation,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a quote accompanying the 2020 indictment. “Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon.”
Maduro’s wife was not named in the 2020 indictment.
WTOP’s Ian Crawford spoke with national security correspondent J.J. Green to breakdown the U.S. military operation.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
- Ian Crawford:
What is the latest and how did this all play out?
- J.J. Green:
This happened in the pre-dawn hours of today, around 2 a.m. local time, and it culminated in the public confirmation of Maduros’ capture by Trump at about 4:15 a.m. And, around 2 a.m., multiple explosions were reported in Caracas and surrounding areas.
Low-flying aircraft were observed by residents, and this was the start of what’s being called kinetic operations. By 4:17, President Trump publicly announced on his social media account that Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country.
Related National Emergency declarations and defensive military responses inside Venezuela have continued through the morning, with them saying this was illegal and that it is wrong and that they’re going to fight back against it. But, what the U.S. was after — Maduro and his wife — they have captured those targets, according to them, and moved them out of the country.
- Ian Crawford:
We are being told this morning by Attorney General Pam Bondi that the Maduros will be facing charges here in the United States — criminal charges. What do we know about these charges?
- J.J. Green:
The U.S. has long said that there was a legal basis to go and get Maduro. One, because of drug trafficking charges. And some of this stuff goes back to the, I think around 2020, and there was actually some activity in U.S. courts around that time asserting as much.
So, essentially what they were saying here and are saying today is that they went and got him because of drug charges and drug operations that he supposedly was running in Venezuela. Also, there have been these allegations — and there’s really been nothing to back them up — saying that Venezuela has stolen U.S. land and stolen U.S. oil and things like that.
This is a part of most likely what we’ll hear more about soon.
- Ian Crawford:
President Trump moved assets into the region weeks ago. Why make this move now, particularly during the holiday season, when many of us may have our attention focused elsewhere?
- J.J. Green:
That’s exactly it. A part of this is surprise. And, you know, you don’t move that much military hardware, and this is one of the biggest military buildups — U.S. military buildups — in modern history.
You don’t move all of that there just for a show, just to say we’re going to take out some boats. We’ve known for a while, and the president has said himself for a good long while that there was going to be some activity on land in Venezuela. And that’s a part of the reason why this took place.
These forces conducted coordinated air and precision strikes against Venezuelan military and strategic infrastructure. This, combined with Elite Special Operations, all of it was designed to show that the U.S. had a goal, had a plan, and it exactly went out and did that, essentially went out and exactly executed that plan today.
- Ian Crawford:
While it may sound audacious to some, it is not without precedent that the U.S. goes into a country and removes its leader. I’m thinking specifically of 35 years ago in Panama.
- J.J. Green:
That’s right. Manuel Noriega was taken away out of that country and jailed on drug trafficking charges, running essentially a drug ring — a big, major, multinational drug ring, and this is akin to that. And there’s going to be, most likely, a lot of other shoes to drop when we look at what actually takes place here, because there are those who are saying, unlike what happened in Panama with Noriega, that the Trump administration in the U.S. is really after Venezuela’s oil.
So, this is different from that precedent you mentioned, but it does follow that same pattern, and we’ll have to wait and see exactly how far the Trump administration goes in terms of trying to keep him in prison, or put him in prison and keep him there.
