The United States launched a “large scale strike” by military forces in Venezuela on Saturday, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The U.S., which said Maduro would face criminal charges in the U.S., where he was indicted years ago, has a long history of military interventions in Latin America.
Here are the major U.S. interventions in Latin America since the Cold War.
1954: Guatemala
On June 27, 1954, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, then-president of Guatemala, was driven from power by mercenaries trained and financed by Washington, after a land reform that threatened the interests of the powerful U.S. company United Fruit Corporation (later Chiquita Brands).
In 2003, the U.S. officially acknowledged the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s role in this coup, in the name of fighting communism.
1961: Cuba
From April 15 to 19, 1961, about 1,400 Cuban exiles were trained by the CIA and they launched the Bay of Pigs invasion to liberate Cuba. The plan was to use exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist government.
At the time, there was a strong fear of the Soviet Union. But the mission went horribly wrong and became a black eye for both the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
The fighting left more than 100 people on each side.
After the Bay of Pigs, the CIA tried to hatch more plots to overthrow Castro that included poisoning his cigar, among other implausible ideas. Other plans were in place under a Kennedy administration plan called “Operation Mongoose.”
No other attack of that magnitude was ever launched against Castro after the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco.
1965: Dominican Republic
In 1965, citing a “communist threat” in the Dominican Republic, the U.S. sent Marines and paratroopers to Santo Domingo to crush an uprising in support of Juan Bosch, a leftist president ousted by generals in 1963.
1970s: Support for dictatorships
Washington backed several military dictatorships in Latin America during the 1970s, seeing them as a bulwark against left-wing armed movements in a world divided by Cold War rivalries.
It actively assisted Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during the September 11, 1973 coup against leftist President Salvador Allende.
U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger supported the Argentine junta in 1976, encouraging it to quickly end its “dirty war,” according to U.S. documents declassified in 2003. At least 10,000 Argentine dissidents disappeared during that time.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil joined forces to eliminate left-wing opponents under “Operation Condor,” with tacit U.S. support.
1979: Nicaragua
In 1979, the Sandinista rebellion overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. U.S. President Ronald Reagan, concerned about Managua’s alignment with Cuba and the Soviet Union, secretly authorised the CIA to provide $20 million in aid to the counterrevolutionaries, the Contras, partly funded by the illegal sale of arms to Iran.
The Nicaraguan civil war lasted until April 1990 and claimed 50,000 lives.
1980: El Salvador
President Reagan also sent military advisers to El Salvador to crush the rebellion of the Farabundo Marta National Liberation Front, or FMLN, in a civil war that lasted for 12 years and resulted in 72,000 deaths.
1983: Grenada
On October 25, 1983, U.S. Marines and Rangers intervened on the island of Grenada after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated by a far-left junta, and as Cubans were expanding the airport, presumably to accommodate military aircraft.
At the request of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, Reagan launched Operation “Urgent Fury” with the stated goal of protecting a thousand U.S. citizens.
The operation, widely deplored by the United Nations General Assembly, ended on November 3, with more than 100 dead.
1989: Panama
Maduro’s capture came 36 years to the day after U.S. forces arrested former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega rose to prominence in Panama’s military government before taking control in 1985. He spent years on the CIA’s payroll, assisting U.S. interests in Latin America, before falling out of favor with Washington in the late 1980s.
Former President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, sending 24,000 troops to topple Noriega’s government. The operation left 23 American soldiers dead and hundreds more injured. “Operation Just Cause” officially left 500 dead in total. NGOs have listed the toll in the thousands.
Noriega hid out in the Vatican embassy before surrendering to U.S. authorities on January 3, 1990. He was taken to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges. His fall led to the end of Panama’s military dictatorship. He spent more than 20 years in prison in the United States, then extradited to France and Panama. He died in 2017.
President Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning, 35 years to the day after U.S. forces arrested another indicted Latin American leader.
A one-time U.S. ally and CIA informant, Manuel Noriega led Panama for much of the 1980s.
He was raised in the slums of Panama City and rose to prominence under Gen. Omar Torrijos, who seized power in a 1968 coup. After Torrijos was killed in a 1983 plane crash, Noriega took control of the Panamanian government. He was propped up by U.S. officials, who paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight drug trafficking.
Noriega spent years on the CIA’s payroll, assisting U.S. interests throughout Latin America and acting as a liaison to Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Former U.S. officials testified that Noriega’s assistance was crucial to advancing foreign policy interests in South America during that time.
Manuel Noriega gestures while giving speech in Panama City in March 1988 file photo.
Gary Hershorn / Reuters
Noriega fell out of favor with Washington due to his demands for independence and allegations that he was accepting bribes to allow drugs into the U.S. in the late 1980s. Former President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, sending 24,000 troops to topple Noriega’s government. The operation left 23 American soldiers dead and hundreds more injured.
Noriega hid out in the Vatican embassy before surrendering to U.S. authorities on January 3, 1990. He was taken to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges. His fall led to the end of Panama’s military dictatorship.
Noriega was convicted on drug trafficking charges and spent 20 years in an American prison. He was extradited to France in 2010 to serve a seven-year money laundering sentence. In 2011, he was sent to Panama to complete a 60-year sentence for murder, corruption and embezzlement during the military’s three-decade rule.
In 2015, Noriega gave his first interview in nearly 20 years from his Panamanian prison. He called himself “the last general of the military era” and apologized to those “offended, affected, injured or humiliated” by his own actions or those of his superiors and subordinates during the military regime.
Noriega died after complications from a surgery to remove a benign brain tumor in 2017. He was 83. Juan Carlos Varela, Panama’s president at the time, said that his death “closes a chapter in our history.”
Manuel Noriega poses for photo in picture received by Reuters in Panama City on December 14, 2011.
Handout / Reuters
House Intelligence Chair Rep. Rick Crawford commented on the connection between Noriega’s capture and the operation in Venezuela in a statement shared on social media.
“This is a historic day in the Western Hemisphere, 36 years after the capture of Manuel Noriega, when the U.S showed we will not allow cartels to take over countries in our shared neighborhood. The arrest of Cartel De Los Soles leader Nicolas Maduro shows this clearly,” said Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas. “Venezuela could never start the road back to the great nation it once was until Maduro was out of the way. I call upon the Venezuelan people to reclaim their freedom.”
United States leaders reacted early Saturday morning as President Trump confirmed overnight military strikes in Venezuela and announced the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
Mr. Trump said Maduro and his wife had been flown out of Venezuela, but did not say where the pair were. Venezuelan officials have called for proof of life. The U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture them, officials told CBS News. The Trump administration notified Congressional leaders about the operation only after it began, Congressional sources told CBS News.
Maduro, 63, has led Venezuela since 2013. His most recent election was disputed by international observers and the U.S. recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner. The U.S. imposed sanctions against election officials for allegedly rigging the outcome, but Maduro was still sworn in for a third term in January.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Saturday morning that Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism charges.
It was not immediately clear whether the nation’s top lawyer was referring only to charges contained in an indictment filed against the Venezuelan leader in 2020, or if there would be new or different charges filed in an indictment Saturday.
In 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that Maduro and other senior Venezuelan government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to traffic cocaine and weapons to the United States
The Justice Department also accused Maduro of leading a criminal organization called Cártel de Los Soles in 2020. The Trump administration designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization last year, though experts have questioned that characterization. The U.S. has been offering a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.
Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said he had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “who confirmed that Maduro is in U.S. custody and will face justice for his crimes against our citizens.”
Cotton said that Venezuela’s interim government “must now decide whether to continue the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether to act like a normal nation and return to the civilized world.”
“I urge them to choose wisely,” he said.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said that he also spoke with Rubio, who said that Maduro would be brought to the U.S. Lee also said that Rubio “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
Lee added that the operation “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack,” but did not offer any other details.
Vice President JD Vance praised the “brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”
“Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says,” Vance said.
House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas, drew comparisons to the arrest of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1990.
“This is a historic day in the Western Hemisphere, 36 years after the capture of Manuel Noriega, when the U.S showed we will not allow cartels to take over countries in our shared neighborhood. The arrest of Cartel De Los Soles leader Nicolas Maduro shows this clearly,” Crawford said. “Venezuela could never start the road back to the great nation it once was until Maduro was out of the way. I call upon the Venezuelan people to reclaim their freedom.”
Democrat lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for acting unilaterally.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, called Maduro “an illegitimate ruler” but said he had “seen no evidence that his presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without Congressional authorization, nor have I heard a strategy for the day after and how we will prevent Venezuela from descending into chaos.”
“The Administration must immediately brief Congress on its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision,” Himes said.
Sen. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, said that Mr. Trump “rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.” Kim also accused Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of lying to Congress when they met with leaders last month about fatal strikes on alleged drug vessels and said the Trump administration’s goal was not regime change.
“Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela,” said Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern.
Vance highlighted Maduro’s previous indictments as justification for the operation.
“You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,” he said.
A CBS News poll in November found that 70% of Americans would oppose the U.S. taking military action in Venezuela, and 75% said the Trump administration would need Congressional approval. Most surveyed also said they did not see Venezuela as a major threat to the U.S.
International leaders reacted swiftly on Saturday morning as President Trump confirmed U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and announced the capture of the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Many U.S. adversaries, including some of Venezuela’s nearest neighbors, condemned the strikes, while other governments around the world called for deescalation and voiced concern for their citizens in the Latin American nation.
Latin American reaction
Colombia, which shares a border with Venezuela, called for urgent deescalation. It said it had “implemented steps to protect the civilian population, preserve stability on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and promptly address any potential humanitarian or migration needs.”
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel called the operation a “criminal US attack.” He said the country denounced the attack and called for an “URGENT reaction from the international community.”
Iran and Russia condemn U.S. action in Venezuela
Iran also condemned the attack, calling it a “flagrant violation of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Venezuela, the AFP news agency reported. Mr. Trump recently responded to reports that at least eight people have been killed amid nearly a week of escalating protests in Iran by warning the Middle Eastern country that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Russia’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of “an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply concerning and condemnable” in a statement, according to the Reuters news agency.
“The pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideological animosity has prevailed over business pragmatism and the willingness to build relationships based on trust and predictability,” the statement said. “In the current situation, it is important, first and foremost, to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a way out of the situation through dialogue.”
The Russian government called for Venezuela to “be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, interference from outside,” and backed other calls for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
European nations call for deescalation, voice concern over nationals in Venezuela
Top European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas said that she had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the E.U.’s ambassador in Caracas. She said the E.U. is “closely monitoring the situation” and noted that it has “repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy.”
“Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected,” Kallas wrote. “We call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority.”
European nations including Italy and Belgium said the safety of their citizens was their top priority, and that they were monitoring the situation.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry called in a statement for “de-escalation and moderation, and for action to always be taken in accordance with international law and the principles of the U.N. Charter,” according to Reuters.
The Spanish ministry added an offer to help mediate “to achieve a peaceful and negotiated solution to the current crisis.”
CARACAS, Venezuela — The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president, Nicolás Maduro, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington – an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas, the capital, as Maduro’s government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations. The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.
It was not immediately clear who was running the country, and Maduro’s whereabouts were not immediately known. Trump announced the developments on Truth Social shortly after 4:30 a.m. ET. Under Venezuelan law the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would take power. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.
President Donald Trump says Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been captured.
“We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said. “We demand proof of life.”
Maduro, Trump said, “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.” He set a news conference for later Saturday morning.
The legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who briefed him on the strike. Rubio told Lee that Maduro “has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.”
The White House did not immediately respond to queries on where Maduro and his wife were being flown to. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the Southern District of New York.
Maduro last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.
The explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, early on the third day of 2026 – at least seven blasts – sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties on either side. 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 issued a ban on U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of “ongoing military activity” ahead of the explosions.
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 – the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
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 neighborhood 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 sky 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 defense 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.
Reaction emerges slowly
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.”
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted his potential concerns, reflecting a view from the right flank in the Congress. “I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force,” Lee said on X.
It was not clear if the U.S. Congress had been officially notified of the strikes.
The Armed Services committees in both houses of Congress, which have jurisdiction over military matters, have not been notified by the administration of any actions, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.
Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised deep reservations and flat out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling on boats near the Venezuelan coast and the Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
Regional reaction was not immediately forthcoming in the early hours of Saturday. Cuba, however, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, called for the international community to respond to what president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called “the criminal attack.” “Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted,” he said on X. Iran’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the strikes.
President Javier Milei of Argentina praised the claim by his close ally, Trump, that Maduro had been captured with a political slogan he often deploys to celebrate right-wing advances: “Long live freedom, dammit!”
The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.
Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
___
Toropin and AP journalist Lisa Mascaro reported from Washington.
Caracas (CNN) — President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the US will “run” Venezuela after capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a large-scale military operation, a stunning development that plunged the country into uncertainty after weeks of spiraling tensions.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” he wrote on Truth Social early Saturday morning.
Trump later said the US would play a central role in running the country indefinitely until a formal transition of power can take place, while declining to rule out the possibility of longer-term military involvement in Venezuela.
“We’re going to be running it,” he said from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Venezuela requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to the attack, Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said.
“No cowardly attack will prevail against the strength of this people, who will emerge victorious,” he said on Telegram, sharing the letter sent to the UN.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded the “immediate release” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Rodríguez, who Trump said earlier was sworn in as president, said Venezuela’s territorial integrity was “savagely attacked” by the US operation.
Trump on Saturday morning posted a photo of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, where the Venezuelan president and his wife were held before being transported to New York, where they face charges. The ousted leader and his wife were brought to New York on Saturday evening, and Maduro is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
A new indictment filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and shared by Attorney General Pam Bondi alleges that Maduro ran “state sponsored gangs” and facilitated drug trafficking in the country.
Trump said he did not notify members of Congress until after the strike, saying at his news conference at Mar-a-Lago that “Congress has a tendency to leak. It would not be good if they leaked.”
Democratic lawmakers demanded an immediate briefing and criticized the administration for not seeking congressional authorization before the attack, while Republican lawmakers largely applauded the action.
Here’s what we know:
What happened?
A CNN team witnessed several explosions and heard the sounds of aircraft early Saturday in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, and reported that some areas of the city were without electricity.
Videos verified by CNN showed helicopters roaring over Caracas, with plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. Footage also showed a large blaze and explosions at an airport in the city of Higuerote.
Hours after the strikes, CNN’s Mary Mena said from Caracas that the capital was calm.
“We listened to many airplanes and helicopters passing by, but right now the city remains quiet, for the past two hours,” she said. “We haven’t heard people for example coming to the streets, and the state channel keeps repeating this message from the ministry of defense saying they want people to remain calm and they will deploy military forces across the country.”
The first blast witnessed by the CNN team was recorded at approximately 1:50 a.m. local time (12:50 a.m. ET).
“One was so strong, my window was shaking after it,” CNN en Español correspondent Osmary Hernández said.
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine later described an extensive overnight operation to capture Maduro and his wife that involved more than 150 aircraft launching from bases across the Western Hemisphere.
Among them were helicopters carrying an extraction force that entered Venezuela at low altitude before arriving at Maduro’s compound around 1 a.m. ET. The US soldiers came under fire, spending several hours on the ground before successfully capturing Maduro and his wife and flying out of Venezuela about 3:29 a.m. ET, Caine said.
Two sources familiar with the matter said Maduro and his wife were dragged from their bedroom by US forces during the raid. The couple was captured in the middle of the night as they were sleeping, the sources said.
The raid, carried out by the US Army’s elite Delta Force with the assistance of an FBI unit, did not lead to any US deaths. However, a handful of troops sustained bullet and shrapnel wounds, a source briefed on the matter told CNN. Caine also said that one aircraft “was hit, but remained flyable” and was able to make it out of Venezuela.
Maduro and his wife were then transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, beginning a trip that ultimately ended in New York, where they’re expected to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela on January 3, 2026. Credit: Matias Delacroix / AP via CNN Newsource
Why is it happening?
The Trump administration has for years said that Maduro was a criminal and has sought to prosecute him through the US legal system.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice charged Maduro in the Southern District of New York for “narco-terrorism,” conspiracy to import cocaine, and related charges.
The Trump administration offered a $15 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest. That bounty was increased to $25 million in the waning days of the Biden administration, in early January 2025, and was increased again, to $50 million, in August 2025 after Trump took office for a second term and designated Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization. The administration has claimed that Maduro is the leader of that group, which it describes as a criminal organization.
Trump had repeatedly warned for months that the US was preparing to take new action against alleged drug-trafficking networks in Venezuela and that strikes on land would start “soon.”
Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has included strikes destroying more than 30 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in what the US has described as a counter-narcotics campaign. Trump last month ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela, and the US has seized multiple vessels since the announcement.
The CIA carried out a drone strike in December on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, CNN reported last month, citing sources, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.
Trump said Saturday he also directly urged Maduro to surrender voluntarily.
“I said, ‘You got to surrender,’” he said. “And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did.”
Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela on Saturday. Credit: Matias Delacroix / AP via CNN Newsource
Several world leaders, including US allies, have reacted with concern to the US operation.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he “wants to establish the facts” and speak to Trump about the military operation in Venezuela, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.
“I always say and believe we should all uphold international law,” Starmer said, adding that Britain was “not involved in any way” in the strike on Caracas, PA Media reported.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in a post on X that the commission “stand(s) by the people of Venezuela and support(s) a peaceful and democratic transition. Any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.”
Many leaders across Latin America expressed concern to the US attack on Venezuela, with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel slamming what he called a “criminal” attack by the US. Meanwhile, Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, appeared to welcome the capture of Venezuela’s leader with a message on X: “Freedom advances! Long live freedom, damn it!”
Venezuela’s allies Russia and Iran condemned the US attack.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced what it called an “act of armed aggression against Venezuela” by the US, calling any “excuses” given to justify such actions “untenable.”
“We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and our support for the Bolivarian leadership’s course of action aimed at protecting the country’s national interests and sovereignty,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.
Similarly, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the attack violates Venezuela’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the UN Charter, Iranian state news outlet Press TV reported.
What comes next?
What happens next in Venezuela is far from clear. The country’s constitution states that power passes to Maduro’s vice president, Rodríguez.
Trump said that Rodríguez spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, in a defiant address broadcast from Caracas, Rodríguez asserted that Maduro is “the only president of Venezuela” and that Venezuelans “must not become slaves again.”
Trump said he planned to have the US effectively run Venezuela for an indefinite period as it works toward a formal transition of power. Top US officials, including Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, will work with a “team” to assist in leading the country, he said, without offering specifics.
Trump could not say how long the US would be centrally involved in Venezuela’s governance, but suggested that he was open to a longer-term process that could include a US military presence.
He repeatedly asserted that his administration would partner with US energy companies to take control of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, arguing that the US was owed oil as “reimbursement for the damages” that he alleged had been inflicted on the country by Venezuela.
“We’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago,” Trump said.
That leaves the future of the current Venezuelan regime in serious doubt, yet little clarity on whether its opposition — within and outside the country — will be positioned to capitalize on the opportunity.
If the US ultimately follows Venezuela’s constitutional path, elections are supposed to be held within 30 days. The newly elected president then serves a full six-year term.
The most likely opposition candidate is Edmundo González Urrutia, who ran in the 2024 election. González, an academic and longtime diplomat, is now in exile in Spain. He is supported by the recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, democratic activist María Corina Machado.
On Saturday, Machado said the time has come for “popular sovereignty” in Venezuela and the installation of González as the country’s leader.
“Nicolás Maduro from today faces international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations,” she said in a letter posted on X. “Given his refusal to accept a negotiated solution, the government of the United States has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law.”
But Trump declined to endorse any immediate successor or lay out a plan for holding elections and restoring stability in Venezuela, while rejecting the possibility that Machado could serve as an interim leader.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he said. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Instead, Trump appeared comfortable in the immediate aftermath of Maduro’s ouster with maintaining control over Venezuela for as long as he deemed fit.
“It’s not going to cost us anything,” he said. “We’re going to be rebuilding.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Osmary Hernández, Mary Triny Mena, Tim Lister, Jennifer Hansler, Alejandra Jaramillo, Isaac Yee, Michael Rios, Billy Stockwell and Laura Sharman contributed to this report
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Stefano Pozzebon, Simone McCarthy, Adam Cancryn and CNN
Trump repeatedly threatened to move from boat strikes to land strikes
President Trump repeatedly warned in recent months that his administration could attack accused drug traffickers who traverse Latin America by land “very soon,” which would mark an escalation in the U.S. military’s campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug boats.
“We’re going to start doing those strikes on land, too,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting when asked about the administration’s strikes at sea. “You know, the land is much easier … And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we’re going to start that very soon, too.”
He said at the time that any country where illicit drugs are produced or trafficked could be subject to attack, not just Venezuela.
Cuba’s president denounces strikes on Venezuela as a “criminal attack by the U.S.”
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said in a social media post that his country denounced “the criminal attack by the U.S.” on Venezuela, and he called for urgent condemnation from the international community for what he described as “State terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against Our America.”
Venezuela accuses U.S. of “very serious military aggression”
In a statement early Saturday, the Venezuelan government said it “repudiates and denounces to the international community the very serious military aggression” by the U.S. government.
Venezuela said the strikes targeted civilian and military sites in the city of Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
The government vowed to defend against the apparent strikes, and accused the U.S. of seeking regime change.
“The whole country must be active to defeat this imperialist aggression,” the government’s statement read, adding a call for an immediate meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Explosions heard in Caracas
U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that President Trump had ordered strikes in Venezuela not long after reports started to emerge of explosions and low-flying aircraft in the country’s capital of Caracas in the early Saturday morning hours. Initially U.S. officials had said only that they were aware of the reports.
President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia said in a social media post that someone was “bombing Caracas in this moment,” without saying who.
“Alert to the whole world, they have attacked Venezuela bombing with missiles,” he said, calling for a meeting of the United Nations.
A fire burns at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, after a series of explosions in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026.
LUIS JAIMES /AFP via Getty Images
Trump approved Venezuela strikes days beforehand, sources say
President Trump gave the U.S. military the green light to conduct land strikes in Venezuela days before the actual operation occurred, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters.
Military officials discussed conducting the mission on Christmas Day, but U.S. airstrikes in Nigeria against ISIS targets took precedence, the sources said.
The days following Christmas opened more potential strike windows to U.S. military officials but the operation was held due to weather conditions. The officials said the U.S. military wanted weather conditions that were advantageous to mission success.
U.S. launches airstrikes on Venezuela
President Trump ordered strikes on sites inside Venezuela early Saturday morning, including military facilities, U.S. officials told CBS News.
The Pentagon referred all requests for comment to the White House.
Before land strikes, Trump said it would be “smart” for Maduro to leave
President Trump has been noncommittal on whether the goal of his military buildup is to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He told reporters on Dec. 22 it would be “smart” for Maduro to leave power, but it’s “up to him what he wants to do.”
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been more direct about the president’s intentions, telling Vanity Fair in November: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
Mr. Trump said in mid-December that Venezuela was “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”
“It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” he posted on Truth Social on Dec. 16.
Military action follows more than 30 boat strikes, seizure of oil tankers
Then on Dec. 10, the U.S. seized an oil tankercalled The Skipper off the coast of Venezuela. The mission was launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that has been in the area for weeks as part of a broader buildup of U.S. forces in the region, sources told CBS News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a 45-second video of the operation on X, showing armed personnel descending onto the vessel’s deck from a helicopter. She said the U.S. executed a seizure warrant on the vessel, and that it was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
Less than a week later, President Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuela. The U.S. later seized a second oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Dec. 20, and later pursued a third tanker that refused to be boarded and fled.
In what could be the campaign’s first known land strike, Mr. Trump said in late December the U.S. “knocked out” a “big facility” that was allegedly linked to drug trafficking. He described the target as a “dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” but he didn’t specify its location or offer many further details.
The Venezuelan government has criticized the operations at sea, calling the oil tanker seizures acts of “piracy” and accusing the Trump administration of seeking regime change.
Trump administration accuses Maduro, Venezuelan groups of narcoterrorism
The U.S. has asserted that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is complicit with armed criminal gangs smuggling drugs into the U.S. — allegations that Maduro has rejected.
The Trump administration has officially designated two groups as international terrorist organizations that it says are linked to the Maduro regime: the Cartel de los Soles and the gang Tren de Aragua, which are accused of international drug trafficking and violent attacks.
Some experts have questioned the designations. Analysts say the Cartel de los Soles is not a singular organization, but instead refers to elements within the Venezuelan government accused of colluding with drug cartels.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” in May that the administration believes Tren de Aragua is used as a tool of the regime — contradicting an assessment by the National Intelligence Council.
“There’s no doubt in our mind, and in my mind, and in the FBI’s assessment that this is a group that the regime in Venezuela uses, not just to try to destabilize the United States, but to project power,” Rubio said.
Maduro and several of his top lieutenants were charged in U.S. federal court in 2020 with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking, which he denied. “Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon” to harm the U.S., prosecutors alleged.
Strikes come after months of U.S. military buildup in region
Over the past few months, the U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela in multiple ways, including an extensive military buildup in the region, live fire exercises and deadly strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
There are currently about 15,000 U.S. troops in the region. Some 11 naval vessels were in the Caribbean Sea as of Dec. 30, Navy officials told CBS News, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier.
The U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean also includes five guided missile destroyers, two guided missile cruisers, an amphibious assault ship and two amphibious transport dock ships, officials said.
There are also several dozen U.S. fighter jets stationed in Puerto Rico. And this month, the U.S. moved aircraft to the region that are designed to carry special forces, including CV-22 Ospreys and C-17 cargo planes, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
President Trump ordered strikes on sites inside Venezuela, including military facilities, U.S. officials told CBS News, as the administration early Saturday ratcheted up its campaign against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
At least seven explosions were heard, along with low-flying aircraft, in Venezuela’s capital city Caracas around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday. People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.
Trump administration officials said they were aware of reports of explosions and aircraft, sources told CBS News, but there was no immediate response to requests for the White House to comment and no immediate reaction from Venezuela’s government.
President Gustavo Petro of neighboring Colombia said in a social media post that someone was “bombing Caracas in this moment,” without saying who.
“Alert to the whole world, they have attacked Venezuela bombing with missiles,” he said, calling for a meeting of the United Nations.
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.
Matias Delacroix / AP
The reported explosions come after months of the U.S. military targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the region, and as the Trump administration exerts pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Thousands of U.S. forces and several naval vessels have been deployed to the region, and President Trump has hinted for weeks at a wider possible military operation.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro’s regime of collaborating with drug traffickers, which the Venezuelan government denies. The U.S. has also put pressure on Venezuela’s oil sector, seizing two sanctioned oil tankers last month. Mr. Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” on all sanctioned tankers that enter or exit Venezuela in mid-December.
On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking. Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves.
Mr. Trump has not explicitly said what his goal for Venezuela is, but said late last month it would be “smart” for Maduro to leave power. He also warned that if Maduro “plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough.”
Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, on Saturday.
WASHINGTON — The day after Christmas is typically quiet in the nation’s capital. But President Trump’s decision to acknowledge a covert U.S. strike on Venezuelan territory, in an interview with an obscure local news outlet on Friday, set off a scramble in a drowsy Washington that has become a hallmark of the president.
Officials working on Latin America policy for the administration that had been closely tracking reports of refinery fires and other curious events throughout Venezuela couldn’t immediately figure out which target the president was talking about, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times.
Trump would later detail that the strike targeted a “dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.” But initial confusion from within his own government signaled just how tight a circle within the West Wing is determining whether to climb the escalation ladder toward war with Caracas.
Trump initially confirmed he had authorized CIA actions in Venezuela in an exchange with reporters on October. While the administration is obligated to report covert CIA operations to Congress, more robust congressional authorization is required for the use of military force.
“I authorized for two reasons, really. No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America,” Trump said at the time. “And the other thing, the drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.”
The strike comes as Venezuelan authorities have increased the number of U.S. citizens detained in their custody, the New York Times first reported on Friday. Caracas had freed 17 Americans and permanent residents held in notorious Venezuelan prisons at the start of the Trump administration.
Evan Ellis, who served in Trump’s first term planning State Department policy on Latin America, the Caribbean and international narcotics, said it was “unclear whether the initial plan was for this operation to be publicly announced in an interview by the president.” Venezuela’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, “was certainly confused about it,” he said.
“It would make sense for them to do something like that, rather then a military strike, especially right now when there’s a delicate line between military operations and other things,” Ellis added. “My sense is — to the extent the president has acknowledged it — that this was them carrying out their mission to shape the battlespace in support of broader national objectives.”
Trump has repeatedly told the media that Maduro’s days in power are numbered. The administration refers to him and his regime as an illegitimate narco-state terrorizing American communities. On a bipartisan basis, going back to Trump’s first term and throughout the Biden administration, the United States has recognized a democratic opposition in Venezuela as its rightful government.
But a military war on the drug trade would make little sense targeting Venezuela, where only a fraction of illicit narcotics smuggled into the United States originate. Trump has hinted in recent weeks at other motives driving his calculus.
Over the last four months, the Trump administration slowly ramped up its pressure campaign on Maduro, first by targeting boats allegedly carrying narcotics and drug smugglers in international waters before announcing a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers. Venezuela’s oil exports have consequently plummeted by half over the course of the last month.
On Wednesday, the Treasury Department also issued sanctions against four companies that it said were either operating in Venezuela’s oil sector or as accompanying oil tankers.
“Maduro’s regime increasingly depends on a shadow fleet of worldwide vessels to facilitate sanctionable activity, including sanctions evasion, and to generate revenue for its destabilizing operations,” the department said in a statement. “Today’s action further signals that those involved in the Venezuelan oil trade continue to face significant sanctions risks.”
The Pentagon, meanwhile, has stationed nearly a quarter of the U.S. naval fleet in the Caribbean since the summer, in what Trump has referred to as a “massive armada” without precedent in the region.
While Venezuela’s current oil output is modest, the nation sits on the world’s largest known oil reserves, offering significant potential access to any future strategic partners. China is currently the largest importer of Venezuelan oil, and at least one tanker subjected to the U.S. blockade has sought protection from Moscow, Maduro’s chief military ally.
Addressing the blockade in an exchange with reporters, Trump said he had spoken with top U.S. oil executives about what the Venezuelan market would look like with Maduro no longer in power. And he suggested the U.S. government would keep whatever barrels are seized, hearkening back to Trump’s campaign, throughout the 2010s, for the United States to control the oil fields of Iraq as the spoils of its war there.
“We’re going to keep it,” Trump said last week, of the 1.9 million barrels of Venezuelan oil on the first tanker seized. “Maybe we’ll sell it. Maybe we’ll keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping it.”
Men who were part of the group of Venezuelan migrants that the United States government transferred earlier this year to a prison in El Salvador demanded justice on Friday, days after a federal judge in Washington ruled that the Trump administration must give them legal due process.The men told reporters in Venezuela’s capital that they hope legal organizations can push their claims in court. Their press conference was organized by Venezuela’s government, which had previously said it had retained legal services for the immigrants.On Monday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. government to give legal due process to the 252 Venezuelan men, either by providing court hearings or returning them to the U.S. The ruling opens a path for the men to challenge the Trump administration’s allegation that they are members of the Tren de Aragua gang and subject to removal under an 18th century wartime law.The men have repeatedly said they were physically and psychologically tortured while at the notorious Salvadoran prison.”Today, we are here to demand justice before the world for the human rights violations committed against each of us, and to ask for help from international organizations to assist us in our defense so that our human rights are respected and not violated again,” Andry Blanco told reporters in Caracas, where roughly two dozen of the migrants gathered Friday.Some of the men shared the daily struggles they now face — including fear of leaving their home or encountering law enforcement — as a consequence of what they said were brutal abuses while in prison. The men did not specify what justice should look like in their case, but not all are interested in returning to the U.S.”I don’t trust them,” Nolberto Aguilar said of the U.S. government.The men were flown to El Salvador in March. They were sent to their home country in July as part of a prisoner swap between the Trump administration and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Camilla Fabri, Venezuelan vice minister of foreign affairs for international communications, said Maduro’s government is working with a bar association in the U.S. and “all human rights organizations to prepare a major lawsuit against Trump and the United States government, so that they truly acknowledge all the crimes they have committed against” the men.
Men who were part of the group of Venezuelan migrants that the United States government transferred earlier this year to a prison in El Salvador demanded justice on Friday, days after a federal judge in Washington ruled that the Trump administration must give them legal due process.
The men told reporters in Venezuela’s capital that they hope legal organizations can push their claims in court. Their press conference was organized by Venezuela’s government, which had previously said it had retained legal services for the immigrants.
On Monday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. government to give legal due process to the 252 Venezuelan men, either by providing court hearings or returning them to the U.S. The ruling opens a path for the men to challenge the Trump administration’s allegation that they are members of the Tren de Aragua gang and subject to removal under an 18th century wartime law.
The men have repeatedly said they were physically and psychologically tortured while at the notorious Salvadoran prison.
“Today, we are here to demand justice before the world for the human rights violations committed against each of us, and to ask for help from international organizations to assist us in our defense so that our human rights are respected and not violated again,” Andry Blanco told reporters in Caracas, where roughly two dozen of the migrants gathered Friday.
Some of the men shared the daily struggles they now face — including fear of leaving their home or encountering law enforcement — as a consequence of what they said were brutal abuses while in prison. The men did not specify what justice should look like in their case, but not all are interested in returning to the U.S.
“I don’t trust them,” Nolberto Aguilar said of the U.S. government.
The men were flown to El Salvador in March. They were sent to their home country in July as part of a prisoner swap between the Trump administration and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Camilla Fabri, Venezuelan vice minister of foreign affairs for international communications, said Maduro’s government is working with a bar association in the U.S. and “all human rights organizations to prepare a major lawsuit against Trump and the United States government, so that they truly acknowledge all the crimes they have committed against” the men.
The U.S. imposed sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday, as well as half a dozen ships accused of carrying oil from the country, as President Trump looks to inflict further pressure on the South American nation.
The new sanctions target Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo. Also included in the sanctions are Panamanian businessman Ramon Carretero Napolitano, six firms and six Venezuela-flagged ships suspected of transporting Venezuelan oil.
U.S. authorities seized control of a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela on Wednesday, an escalation of the recent pressure campaign that has seen thousands of U.S. troops deployed to the region.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published the list of newly sanctioned individuals and entities on Thursday.
The sanctions are meant to deny them access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S., and the penalties are intended to prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them. Banks and financial institutions that violate that restriction expose themselves to sanctions or enforcement actions.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that “Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he said.
This is not the first time Maduro’s family has been involved in a political tit-for-tat with the U.S.
In October 2022, Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing Flores and Campo, who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions. The pair were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and convicted the following year in New York.
Carlos Flores had been sanctioned in July 2017 but was removed from Treasury’s list in 2022 during the Biden administration years in an effort to promote negotiations for democratic elections in Venezuela.
The U.S.’s latest actions against Venezuela follow a series of deadly strikes the U.S. has conducted on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed at least 87 people since early September.
Mr. Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
In a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas, the United States has seized a large Venezuelan oil tanker off the Caribbean coast, prompting fierce denunciations from the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
What To Know
Initial reports on Wednesday cited U.S. officials saying the Coast Guard carried out the tanker seizure under international maritime law, targeting vessels tied to alleged illicit PDVSA-linked crude shipments.
U.S President Donald Trump later confirmed the seizure, hinting that “other things are happening,” but offered no further details.
A senior Trump administration official described the move as a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” last docked in Venezuela.
Oil prices jumped on the news: Brent crude rose 0.8 percent to $62.35 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate climbed to $58.46.
Analysts warn the seizure may further strain U.S.–Venezuela relations and deter shippers already wary of handling sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
Maduro has long accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; the nation’s production has fallen from over 2 million barrels a day to roughly 1 million.
The seizure comes after Trump renewed threats of intervention by land, air, or sea, including a recent U.S. fighter jet flyover near Venezuelan airspace.
Caracas condemned the action as “international piracy” and “brazen theft,” accusing the U.S. of trying to control its natural resources.
Trump called the tanker the “largest ever” seized by the U.S.
Stay with Newsweek for all the latest updates on rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.
President Trump on Saturday said that the airspace surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed, ratcheting up tensions with the Maduro regime and offering yet another sign that he is considering striking targets on land.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump posted on Saturday morning.
For two decades, Venezuela cultivated anti-American allies across the globe, from Russia and China to Cuba and Iran, in the hope of forming a new world order that could stand up to Washington.
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is facing unprecedented American
military and diplomatic pressure to resign and leave his country peacefully. He is unlikely to take the offer.
The days when dictators could live in gilded exile with fortunes in secret Swiss bank accounts are mostly over, primarily because of global mechanisms for adjudicating human-rights abuses and tracking ill-gotten gains. The 63-year-old strongman doesn’t believe he will get lasting amnesty, analysts said, feeling only safe among the cadre of loyal military men with whom he has spent a decade surrounding himself.
Officials in the Trump administration on Saturday discussed the possibility of dropping leaflets on Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas as it seeks to weaken the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Among the potential avenues discussed regarding operations for Venezuela was dropping U.S. leaflets on Caracas as a kind of psychological warfare to pressure Maduro, multiple U.S. officials familiar with the talks told CBS News.
The operation, which was not yet authorized, could possibly take place Sunday, the officials said, which is Maduro’s 63rd birthday.
The Washington Post was first to report on the proposed leaflet operation.
Over the past few months, the U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure on Maduro in multiple ways, including an extensive military buildup in the region, live fire exercises, and strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
When asked Monday, President Trump said he wouldn’t rule out sending U.S. troops into Venezuela.
“No, I don’t rule out that,” the president said. “I don’t rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.”
For his part, Maduro on the same day said he would be open to “face-to-face” discussions with Mr. Trump.
Last month, Mr. Trump also confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to go into Venezuela and conduct covert operations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he arrives for the projection of a biographical series at the National Theatre of Venezuela in Caracas on Nov. 22, 2025.
Juan BARRETO /AFP via Getty Images
The Pentagon has conducted at least 21 strikes since early September, killing at least 80 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the strikes are designed to target cartels and drug traffickers, although it has not provided evidence that the vessels struck so far were carrying drugs.
There are currently about 15,000 U.S. troops in the region. A Navy official told CBS News last week that the U.S. had four military ships in the western Atlantic, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier, and three guided missile destroyers. It had another seven military ships in the Caribbean, the official said, which included two guided missile destroyers, two guided missile cruisers, an amphibious assault ship and two amphibious transport dock ships.
Maduro, who has led Venezuela since 2013, faced an international outcry when he declared victory in Venezuela’s presidential elections in July 2024 despite results showing he had lost by a large margin to the opposition candidate.
The U.S. is one of several nations that does not recognize him as Venezuela’s president. The Trump administration has accused him of operating a cartel that funnels drugs into the U.S., and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
House Democrats have introduced a bill that calls for funding to be cut off for American operations against Venezuela. Former top diplomat to Venezuela, Ambassador James Story, joins CBS News with more on why the U.S. may be building up military presence in the Caribbean.
For more than two decades, a loose-knit group of Venezuelan generals and senior officials has enabled the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the U.S. and Europe,
American and Colombian officials say.
While nearly all cocaine is produced in neighboring Colombia, Venezuela plays an important role in allowing the drug to move through its territory and then onto ships and planes that traffic it to Europe, the Caribbean and the U.S., the officials have said.
