In the early hours of Saturday, January 3, before sunrise, the sound of helicopter rotors marked the beginning of coordinated U.S. attacks on Caracas, Venezuela’s capital in order to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Locals recorded the low-flying helicopters, with some counting up to nine in the sky at once. This was part of a mission that, according to the U.S. military, included over 150 aircraft that consisted of drones, fighter jets, and bombers.
Within hours, U.S. officials confirmed that Maduro and Flores had been taken into U.S. custody following what the Pentagon described as a “targeted military operation.” NPR reporters Rachel Treisman and Chandelis Duster say the strikes began around 2 a.m. local time. They were followed by a rapid extraction that killed a significant portion of Maduro’s security detail, which Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López confirmed later that “a large part” of the president’s protective unit was killed during the operation.
By Saturday evening, a U.S. military aircraft carrying Maduro landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York. Treisman and Duster reported that Maduro and Flores are expected to be held at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn while awaiting trial. President Trump posted a photo on Truth Social that he claimed showed Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, handcuffed and blindfolded, en route to the United States. The State Department declined to comment when asked for more information.
The abduction follows months of escalating U.S. military pressure on Venezuela, particularly in the Caribbean. Since September 2025, U.S. forces have conducted multiple boat strikes as part of “Operation Southern Spear,” a buildup that includes three deployed warships and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The Trump administration has framed the campaign as part of its renewed War on Drugs, alleging Venezuelan involvement in narco-trafficking operations more specifically related to cocaine smuggling.
Joe Walsh of CBS News reported that one strike on September 2 killed 11 people aboard a vessel the White House claimed was operated by Tren de Aragua, a group designated earlier this year by the Trump administration as a foreign terrorist organization. Trump celebrated the attack online, writing, “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Across several strikes, reported deaths range from 17 people to more than 20.
The legality of those operations has been heavily questioned. The Washington Post reported that the September 2 strike was followed by a second attack on the same boat after two survivors were left clinging to wreckage. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said that if the reporting is accurate, the follow-up strike “rises to the level of a war crime,” noting that Pentagon law-of-war guidelines prohibit attacking wounded or shipwrecked combatants. Eleanor Watson, James LaPorta, and Joe Walsh of CBS News reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed that reporting as “fabricated,” saying the administration has “absolute and complete authority” to carry out the strikes.
Watson, LaPorta, and Walsh reported in early December that Hegseth has repeatedly defended the campaign. “The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,” he wrote on X. At a December Cabinet meeting, he added, “We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean.”
Maduro has long denied U.S. allegations that he leads the so-called Cartel de los Soles or cooperates with Colombia’s FARC rebels. He has previously called U.S. actions an “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.” Venezuela also disputes U.S. claims that it plays a major role in smuggling drugs into the United States.
Drug policy experts echoed that skepticism. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann reported that Venezuela is not a primary source of narcotics entering the U.S., with much of the cocaine transiting the country destined for Europe. Mann also points to inconsistencies in the administration’s narcotics enforcement, having freed or pardoned figures such as the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, a Mexican general accused of cartel ties, and an alleged MS-13 leader, even as it frames Maduro as an urgent national security threat. Jeffrey A. Singer of the CATO Institute argued that the administration’s focus appears to be “demonstrating U.S. power” rather than reducing overdose deaths.
The Trump administration maintains that Maduro and Flores will face justice “on American soil in American courts,” according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. An indictment alleges that Maduro participated in a narco-terrorism conspiracy dating back to 1999, accusations he has repeatedly rejected, accusing the U.S. of seeking control over Venezuela’s oil reserves.
International reaction has been swift. European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas reiterated that the EU views Maduro as lacking legitimacy, but warned that the operation raises serious concerns about respect for international law. In the U.S., lawmakers from both parties have questioned the intelligence behind the strikes, the lack of transparency, and what the administration’s end goal actually is.
President Trump says the U.S. will “run” Venezuela. So, the question on everyone’s mind right now is how the U.S. plans to justify controlling another nation’s leadership in the name of the War on Drugs.
