In the early morning, President Trump claimed that the United States had conducted airstrikes on Venezuela and seized President Nicolás Maduro and his wife after a series of explosions and fires were reported in the early hours of the night around Caracas.

Trump made the post on Truth Social early in the morning on 3rd January, claiming that the U.S. had successfully launched a massive strike against Venezuela and its dictator, President Nicolas Maduro, and that Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of the country. Trump indicated that the operation had been carried out with the U.S. Law Enforcement and declared a news conference at 11 a.m. EST at Mar-a-Lago.

The U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug, arms, and conspiracy charges.

“Soon they will have the entire vengeance of the American justice on the American soil, in American courts,” she said.

Trump claimed in an interview on Fox News that Maduro had attempted to negotiate with the U.S. during the last days before his capture, which he declined. “I did not feel like negotiating,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Nope, we got to do it.’”

The Venezuelan government was quick to blame the U.S. for initiating what it referred to as “a serious military aggression against the country.” The government posted on Telegram that the U.S. forces were attacking civilian and military facilities in Caracas and the adjacent states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, and denounced the attacks as a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.

Venezuela Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, told state television that U.S. strikes throughout Venezuela had killed government and military officials. She also included the fact that the government is not aware of where President Maduro and his wife are and requires a demonstration of life.

At the beginning of the morning, Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared surrounded by police, stating that the Venezuelan government will not be intimidated.

At least videos being shared via social media and witness testimonies suggest that the blasts started at or after approximately 2 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EST).

Numerous videos of various explosions around the metropolitan region, including one near a military base near the presidential palace, Miraflores, have been circulated by many Venezuelans, which NPR has not confirmed.

The attacks are happening when the U.S. has been mounting pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro. According to the Trump administration, Maduro is the head of a drug-trafficking group called the “Cartel de los Soles”, or “Cartel of the Soles.”

Beginning in late August, U.S. aircraft carriers and warships have been put in the Caribbean. The American military has sunk dozens of small vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which it alleged were carrying drugs to the U.S. At least there were 35 known attacks on the vessels that resulted in the death of at least 115 people.

The Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, wrote on his social media that the U.S. military intervention and Maduro capture marks the beginning of a brand new era in Venezuela and the dictator will no longer be there. Previous statements by Rubio that Maduro was not the rightful president of Venezuela, but a criminal terror group that seized control of the state, have already been re-posted by Landau and Secretary of state Marco Rubio.

Mike Lee, the Republican Senator of Utah, who was reportedly briefed by Rubio about the strike and does not anticipate doing anything further in Venezuela at this point, as Maduro is under U.S custody. Lee said that he wanted to learn what might be possibly constitutional so as to justify the action in Venezuela without any declaration of war or authorization to employ military force.

Maduro has on many occasions blamed Washington for trying to oust him so that they can access the huge oil reserves in Venezuela, one of the largest in the world.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., stated that Rubio assured him that Maduro is in the custody of the U.S. and he will stand to answer for his crimes committed against U.S. citizens.

Cotton now wrote on X that the interim government in Venezuela had to decide whether to persist with the drug trafficking and collusion with enemies such as Iran and Cuba, or whether to be like a normal country and get back to the civilized world.

Congressional Democrats have criticized the move, with Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern terming it an unwarranted, illegal attack on Venezuela.

According to Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., the strike sends a terrible and alarming message to other influential leaders around the world that attacking a head of state is a valid policy of the U.S. government.

Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth have looked each Senator in the eye a few weeks back and declared that this was not a case of regime change. “I never believed them at the time and we can see now that they just lied to the Congress at the source of their authority, which is that the American people have overwhelmingly opposed the risks that drawing our nation into a new war will come at, without them having done the Constitutionally required sanctioning of such a conflict,” Kim wrote in a post on X.

Reaction within the region has been rapid. The President of Cuba, who is a close ally of Venezuela, which is a major oil-dependent country, condemned the attack as a criminal act. Colombian President Gustavo Petro declared his troops are at the Venezuelan border and vowed to send more troops in case of a new wave of refugees. In contrast, President Javier Milei of Argentina, an associate of Trump, glorified the operation, writing on X: Freedom moves forward.