U.S. Operation Captures Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

On January 3, 2026, U.S. forces carried out "Operation Absolute Resolve," a military raid in Caracas that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said the operation involved roughly 150 aircraft and personnel and struck Venezuelan air-defense targets while a special-operations team seized Maduro at his compound around 2 a.m. local time. Maduro and Flores were flown out via Guantanamo Bay to New York, where they were indicted on narcoterrorism and drug-trafficking charges and pleaded not guilty on January 5. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.

The operation was the culmination of a months-long U.S. pressure campaign that officials had publicly described as counter-narcotics rather than regime change. Afterward, Trump said the United States would "run" Venezuela and emphasized access to the country's oil reserves. Legal scholars and officials at the United Nations questioned the raid's basis under the U.N. Charter and Venezuelan sovereignty, and several members of Congress said senior officials had earlier assured them the goal was not regime change.

Maduro is in U.S. custody awaiting trial in Manhattan federal court, and the political transition in Caracas remains contested.