A blackout, then Delta Force snatched shocked Venezuelan president

Sunday, 4 January 2026

The Venezuelan dictator was in a supposed safe house when the Delta Force commandos burst in just after 2am and snatched him and his wife, before his security team had time to secure the property's final defence of two heavy steel doors. Even if they had, the Americans were armed with blowtorches.

Within minutes Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores were being flown by helicopter across a moonlit Caribbean Sea to the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship. They are both expected to be sent to New York federal detention centre before facing trial on drug-trafficking charges.

The swiftness of the capture has led to speculation that Maduro may have been betrayed by someone in his inner circle. His personal security was understood to have been overseen by Cuba.

US President Donald Trump had given the order for the US military to move on Operation Absolute Resolve at 11.46pm Venezuela time. It was, said General Dan Caine, discreet, precise and the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal - an operation that only the US military could undertake. Personnel had constructed a house that was 'identical' to the building Maduro was in.

'Everything was pinpoint,' Trump said. 'They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the safes, all the steel all over the place.' He had intended to launch the strike four days ago but the weather was 'not perfect'.

Caine described how over the course of the night aircraft began launching from 20 bases on land and sea 'across the western hemisphere'.

More than 150 bombers, fighters and reconnaissance craft were in the air. '150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in close co-ordination all coming together in time and place … for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise,' he said. 'Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission and failure is never an option for America's joint force.'

As the force began to approach Caracas they began dismantling the air defence systems in Venezuela. Trump said the city lights were turned off during the operation 'due to a certain expertise' that America has.

The president said he watched the capture live. 'If you had seen what I saw last night you would be incredibly impressed,' he said at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago yesterday (Saturday), adding that the public would probably never see the video.

'Not one serviceman was killed,' he said.

Residents of Caracas had been woken by at least three thunderous explosions - all apparently aimed at defence installations. A barrage of Russian-supplied anti-aircraft missiles was seen burnt out at the La Carlota military airbase in the centre of the capital.

Trump said he had been prepared to launch more strikes - and still might. He told Fox News a 'second wave' could take place and stressed that Maduro's loyalists will have a 'bad future' if they stay loyal.

'Our adversaries remain on notice. America can project our will anywhere, anytime,' said his secretary of war, Peter Hegseth. 'Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance, until they didn't and until he didn't. He effed around, and he found out.'

The Justice Department unveiled an indictment against the former president alleging he ran a cocaine-trafficking enterprise that 'enriched and entrenched Venezuela's political and military elite'. The former bus driver lost the 2024 presidential election in a landslide but the country's electoral authority, which his regime controls, declared him the winner anyway.

The indictment named six defendants, including Maduro's wife and his son, charging them with drug and gun offences. It alleges they engaged in a narco-terrorism conspiracy, working with drug cartels the US considers foreign terrorist organisations. Prosecutors said the 'massive-scale' drug trafficking concentrated power and wealth in the hands of Maduro and his family.

Laying out his extraordinary plan to run Venezuela, Trump said the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had spoken with the vice-president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, who said she was ready to work with the United States.

'You have a vice-president who has been appointed by Maduro. So she's, I guess, the president,' he said. 'She had a long conversation with Marco [Rubio] and she said we'll do whatever you need … I think she was quite gracious but she really doesn't have a choice.'

Rodriguez, an avowed socialist who has long expressed her fierce loyalty to Maduro, was sworn in as interim president in secret in Caracas yesterday (Saturday), according to two people close to the government, The New York Times reported.

Earlier, on an audio address released to state television following the raid, she had given no indication that she was prepared to co-operate with the Trump administration. Instead, she led Venezuelan government protests against the raid, demanding the US give 'proof of life' for Maduro and Flores. Other regime heavyweights also made appearances, to give the impression the regime was intact.

Trump's apparent endorsement of Rodriguez would appear to block the ambitions, at least in the short term, of the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is understood to be in Norway where last month she received the Nobel peace prize. In a statement issued before Trump spoke, she said 'the hour of freedom has arrived' and called for Venezuelans to support a democratic transition.

She said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who was elected president in 2024 in an election that international observers say was stolen by Maduro, was ready to 'immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognised as commander in chief of the national armed forces'. 'We are going to restore order, liberate political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home,' she wrote.

Trump said he had not been in touch with her. 'I think it would be very tough for her to be leader … She's a very nice woman but she doesn't have the respect within the country,' he said.

The streets of Caracas were mostly eerily quiet yesterday (Saturday), except at petrol stations which were being controlled by police and some supermarkets where long queues were seen. Asked for her reaction to the night's events, one shopper said she was 'relieved' that Maduro 'was finally gone'.