Venezuela’s Maduro to face ‘full wrath of American justice’ after capture by US forces
Donald Trump has said the US “captured” Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them out of the South American country after a pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region.
“It was a brilliant operation, actually,” the US president told the New York Times after witnesses in Venezuela reported a series of explosions. “A lot of good planning and [a] lot of great, great troops and great people.”
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said the couple would face criminal charges and trial in the US based on a 2020 New York indictment. In a social media post, she said they would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”.
It was not immediately clear what the legal and constitutional authority for the military operation and the capture and trial of a sovereign head of state was. Nor was it clear whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand, which is supposed to be notified by the presidency before any declaration of war.
Writing on social media, Trump confirmed US troops had launched “a large-scale strike against Venezuela” and said more details would be announced at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. CBS News reported US officials as saying that Maduro had been captured by members of the elite army unit Delta Force, which was responsible for the 2019 killing of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The bombardment of Venezuela by the US and its kidnapping of a foreign head of state shocked the international community, which reacted with alarm. Neighbouring Colombia condemned the attack, and said that it was preparing to receive a “massive influx of refugees”.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Saul, said Trump should be investigated for the operation.
“I condemn the US’s illegal aggression against Venezuela and the illegal abduction of its leader and his wife. Every Venezuelan life lost is a violation of the right to life,” Saul said.
Speaking on Venezuela’s state-run television channel, the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, appeared to confirm the capture of Maduro and Flores, admitting that she did not know where they were. Rodríguez, who is one of Maduro’s closest allies, demanded immediate “proof of life” for the couple and accused the US of “murdering humble and innocent Venezuelan men and women”.
“At this moment Venezuela is calm, absorbing the significance of a military aggression of this nature,” she added in the brief telephone interview.
It remains unclear who is currently in charge of Venezuela in the president’s absence. The interior minister Diosdado Cabello appeared in a video on state TV flanked by police officers assuring citizens the situation was stable.
“The military forces, the police forces … and the people are prepared for any situation, and prepared for any attempt to go further than the cowardly attacks that were carried out against the military forces and our people,” Cabello said, wearing a bullet proof vest and a tactical helmet.
Earlier, Venezuela’s government accused the US of launching a series of attacks against civilian and military targets in the country after explosions rocked its capital before dawn on Saturday.
In a statement, Venezuela’s government urged citizens to rise up against the assault and said Washington risked plunging Latin America into chaos with “an extremely serious” act of “military aggression”.
“The entire country must mobilise to defeat this imperialist aggression,” it added.
Crowds of Maduro supporters gathered in downtown Caracas, some carrying pictures of the captured president, others embracing tearfully.
In a defiant online video, Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, accused the US of launching a “deplorable” and “criminal” regime change operation and said the “barbaric” invading forces had “desecrated our sacred land”.
“This invasion represents the greatest outrage the country has ever suffered,” Gen Padrino López declared, adding that Venezuelan authorities were still trying to calculate how many civilians had been killed or injured during helicopter attacks on urban areas.
He called on citizens and soldiers to unite to resist the foreign “invasion”.
“They have attacked us but they will not vanquish us … we will form an indestructible wall of resistance. Our vocation is peace, but our heritage is the fight for freedom,” he said.
In its statement, Venezuela’s government confirmed three other states had come under attack: Miranda, La Guaira and Aragua.
“The only objective of this attack is to seize control of Venezuela’s strategic resources, in particular its oil and minerals,” it said, calling on the international community to denounce what it called a flagrant violation of international law that put millions of lives at risk.
The president of neighbouring Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said on social media that Venezuela was under attack.
“Right now they are bombing Caracas … bombing it with missiles,” Petro wrote on X, calling for an immediate emergency session of the UN security council.
CBS News reported shortly afterwards that Trump had ordered the attacks – including on military facilities. The White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
At least seven explosions were heard at about 2am and people in various neighbourhoods rushed to the street, the reported.
“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes in the distance,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker.
Witnesses reported seeing smoke pouring from two key military installations in Caracas: La Carlota military airfield in the heart of the city and the Fuerte Tiuna military base where Maduro has long been thought to live. Another important airport to the east of Caracas, Higuerote, also appeared to come under attack.
The US has run a five-month pressure campaign against Maduro, which many analysts believe has been aimed at toppling thepresident. Since August, Trump has ordered a massive military buildup off Venezuela’s northern coast and conducted a series of deadly airstrikes on supposed “narco boats”.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch land operations in Venezuela, amid other efforts to pressure Maduro to leave office, including expanded sanctions, an increased US military presence in the region and more than two dozen strikes on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
Legal experts have said that some of the US strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels could amount to war crimes. At least 110 people have been killed by the strikes so far.
The US has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the country’s economy.
Petro published what he claimed was a partial list of the bombed installations in Venezuela, including the 19th-century national assembly building in Caracas; La Carlota, the most important airbase within the capital; and an air force base in the city of Barquisimeto.
Other reputedly targeted sites included the Cuartel de la Montaña barracks in Caracas, a military base that is home to the mausoleum of Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chávez. The mausoleum is one of the most sacred locations for their political movement, Chavismo, which has governed Venezuela in an increasingly authoritarian fashion since Chávez first came to power in 1999. Chávez’s remains were taken to the barracks and put on public display after he died of cancer in 2013.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, denounced the US’s “criminal attack” and said the region was being “brutally assaulted”.
“[This is] state terrorism against the gallant people of Venezuela and against Our America,” wrote Díaz-Canel who is Maduro’s main regional ally.
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