The United States on Saturday, attacked Venezuela and deposed its long-serving autocratic President Nicolas Maduro, according to President Donald Trump.
The attack is regarded as Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
In a Truth Social post, President Trump said: “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.”
REUTERS reports that ahead of the overnight strikes, the U.S. had accused Maduro of running a “narco-state” and rigging the 2024 election.
The Venezuelan leader, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those claims and said Washington was intent on taking control of his nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Maduro was captured by special operations forces and whisked by helicopters to the Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship in the Caribbean, ahead of his transfer to New York.
The fate of Maduro’s government remains an open question.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is in Russia, four sources familiar with her movements said, stoking confusion about who is next in line to govern the South American country. Russia’s foreign ministry said the report that Rodriguez is in Russia was “fake”.
Details of the overnight intervention have not yet been made public. Trump told Fox the raid had been planned for several days earlier but had been repeatedly delayed because of weather.
The U.S. has not made such a direct intervention in its backyard region since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to depose military leader Manuel Noriega over similar allegations.
Venezuela’s ruling “Chavismo” movement, named for Maduro’s revered predecessor, said civilians and military personnel died in Saturday’s strikes but did not give figures.
It was unclear if the U.S. would now stand back while other senior figures in Venezuela’s ruling party – like vice president Delcy Rodriguez – fill the void or if there would be pressure for their ouster as well.
The opposition, headed by recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, had no immediate comment but has said for 18 months that it won the 2024 election and has a democratic right to take power.
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