President Donald Trump said on Saturday that US forces had taken Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro into custody after carrying out a “large scale strike” on the South American nation.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, roughly two hours after explosions shook Venezuela’s capital Caracas.
There was no confirmation from Venezuela’s authorities regarding the fate of the leftist Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
His administration accused the United States of an “extremely serious military aggression” following months of escalating military and economic pressure by Trump.
During a dramatic night of rapidly unfolding events, Caracas was shaken by explosions, along with the sound of helicopters, around 2:00 am (0600 GMT).
The detonations lasted for nearly an hour, AFP journalists reported.
Trump said he would hold a news conference at 11:00 am (1600 GMT) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is on vacation.
– A ‘brilliant’ operation –
In a short phone interview with The New York Times, he praised a “brilliant” operation that involved “a lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.”
Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex located in the south of Caracas, and Carlota airbase in the north were among the strike targets.
AFP observed flames and massive plumes of smoke rising from Fuerte Tiuna.
Explosions were also heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, where Caracas’s airport and port are situated.
“I felt like (the explosions) lifted me out of bed, and I immediately thought, ‘God, the day has come,’ and I cried,” María Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of La Guaira, told AFP.
“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” the government said.
The government said Maduro had declared a state of emergency but the 63-year-old socialist was himself nowhere to be seen.
The defense ministry accused the United States of striking residential areas and announced a “massive deployment” of its military resources.
The leftist president of neighboring Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on X for an emergency meeting of the United Nations and said he was deploying troops to the Venezuela border.
As the strikes started in the dead of night, Caracas residents rushed to their windows and terraces to understand what was happening.
Others took shelter in safe, windowless areas, fearing shattered glass.
Videos shared on social media showed helicopters silhouetted against the night sky.
Power has been cut in certain parts Caracas, according to residents.
– ‘They’re bombing’ –
Francis Pena, a 29-year-old communications professional living in eastern Caracas, told AFP that he
was asleep when his girlfriend woke him and said “they’re bombing.”
“I can’t see the explosions, but I hear the planes. We’re starting to prepare a bag with the most important things at home — passport, cards, cash, candles, a change of clothes, canned food,” Pena said.
Trump, who sent an aircraft carrier and warships to the Caribbean as part of what he initially described as an anti-drug smuggling campaign, had repeatedly warned of strikes on Venezuelan territory.
On Monday, he said it would be “smart” for Maduro, whose re-election in 2024 was widely dismissed by the international community as fraudulent, to step aside.
He also said the United States had struck and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
Maduro said Thursday that he was open to cooperation with Washington.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of leading a drug cartel, but the Venezuelan leader denied any involvement in the narcotics trade, saying Washington was trying to remove him because Venezuela holds the largest known reserves of oil on Earth.
In what appeared to be an effort to push him out, Washington in recent weeks informally closed Venezuela’s airspace in recent weeks, imposed additional sanctions and ordered the seizure of tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers.
The strikes have killed at least 107 people, according to the US military.
