Trump Orders Military Strike on Venezuela, Captures President Maduro in Stunning Overnight Raid

Ive covered wars in Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. But I gotta tell you, what happened in Venezuela last night is something else entirely. This aint just regime change, this is the United States dragging a sitting head of state out of his bedroom in the middle of the night. And the world is still trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

At approximately 2:00 AM local time Saturday morning, January 3rd, residents of Caracas woke up to explosions. Low-flying aircraft. The kind of sounds that make your stomach drop before your brain even processes whats going on. Within hours, President Donald Trump was on Truth Social announcing that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been “captured and flown out of the Country” along with his wife Cilia Flores.

Operation Absolute Resolve. Thats what theyre calling it. And let me tell you, the name fits.

The Operation Unfolds

According to briefings from Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump approved the mission at 10:46 PM ET on Friday, January 2nd. More than 150 aircraft from 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere were involved. US soldiers flew 100 feet above the water to avoid detection – the kind of precision flying that takes years of training and a whole lot of nerve.

Delta Force operators, working alongside FBI agents, raided Maduro’s presidential residence around 3:29 AM ET. They literally dragged him and his wife out of bed. Maduro – the man who’s survived coup attempts, sanctions, mass protests, and international isolation – was in his pajamas when American special forces put hands on him.

Multiple targets across Caracas were hit simultaneously. Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex. La Carlota airbase. The Port of La Guaira. Videos circulating on social media show smoke rising across the capital, tracers lighting up the night sky, and the kind of chaos that comes when the world’s most powerful military decides someone’s time is up.

US troops came under fire during the operation. Several were wounded by bullets and shrapnel, though thankfully no American deaths have been reported. One aircraft took a hit but remained flyable – a testament to both the equipment and the pilots who kept it in the air.

Maduro Lands in New York

By Saturday afternoon, Maduro was on American soil. He landed at Stewart International Airport north of New York City, escorted off a Department of Justice aircraft by FBI and DEA agents. The image – a once-defiant dictator blindfolded aboard the USS Iwo Jima, then paraded through an American airport – is one that’s gonna be in history books.

Attorney General Pam Bondi didnt mince words. Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.” The charges are serious: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, weapons charges. Maduro’s been under federal indictment since 2020, when prosecutors in New York accused him of running the “Cartel de Los Soles” – literally, the Cartel of the Suns – a state-sponsored drug trafficking operation.

Arraignment is scheduled for Monday in US District Court, Southern District of New York. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein presiding.

Trump at Mar-a-Lago

At his press conference Saturday, Trump was… Trump. “This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and confidence in American history,” he said. “Since World War II.”

But heres where it gets complicated. When asked about the future of Venezuela, Trump didnt hedge: “We’re going to run the country.” Run it. The United States is going to run Venezuela. For how long? He wouldnt say. What does that even mean? Nobody really knows.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there backing him up: “Maduro is NOT President… he is head of Cartel de Los Soles.”

And look, theres an argument to be made there. Maduro lost the 2024 election by any reasonable measure. The Venezuelan government declared him the winner, but opposition leaders, international observers, and the US government all called it stolen. María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, dedicated her prize to Trump and has been calling for increased pressure on the regime.

The Constitutional Question

Heres where my reporter instincts start itching. Trump admitted he didnt notify Congress until after the strike was underway. “Congress has a tendency to leak,” he said at Mar-a-Lago. “It would not be good if they leaked.”

I get the operational security argument. I really do. But were talking about launching a military operation against a sovereign nation, capturing its head of state, and taking over its government. Even Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, questioned the constitutionality of it all.

Democratic lawmakers are demanding immediate briefings. Theyre criticizing the administration for not seeking congressional authorization. This is gonna be a fight – maybe in the courts, definitely in Congress, absolutely in the court of public opinion.

International Reaction

The world is… processing.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he wants to “establish the facts” and speak to Trump. Translation: Were not sure what just happened and were not ready to endorse it. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro called for an emergency UN and OAS meeting. The UN is calling this a “dangerous precedent” – and theyve got a point. When does the US get to just grab other countries’ leaders?

China warned its citizens not to travel to Venezuela. Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel called it “criminal.” Argentina’s Javier Milei, ever the contrarian, posted “Freedom advances!” on X.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez released a statement demanding proof Maduro is alive. “We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” she said. “We demand proof of life.” The photo Trump posted – Maduro blindfolded on the USS Iwo Jima – apparently wasnt enough.

The Tulsi Gabbard Irony

And because nothing in politics is simple, lets talk about Tulsi Gabbard. Shes now Trumps Director of National Intelligence. Back in 2019, during Trump’s first term when Bolton was pushing for Venezuela intervention, Gabbard was on X writing: “It’s about the oil… again” and “Throughout history, every time the US topples a foreign country’s dictator/government, the outcome has been disastrous.”

Shes been quiet since Saturday morning.

What Comes Next

Venezuela has the worlds largest oil reserves. Trump has said the US will take control of them, “rebuild infrastructure” before any transition. How long that takes – whether it takes months, years, decades – remains an open question. CBS News is tracking developments as they unfold.

Whats not open is that this is a historic moment. For better or worse, the United States just rewrote the rules on what it considers acceptable intervention in Latin America. The last time something like this happened was Panama 1989, when US forces went in to capture Manuel Noriega. That took 27,000 troops and several weeks of fighting. This follows a pattern weve seen before – Peru’s new president pulled similar authoritarian moves right out of the Venezuela playbook just last year.

This took one night.

Im not gonna tell you whether thats good or bad. Ive seen too many wars, too many interventions, too many “mission accomplished” banners followed by years of chaos. CNN’s coverage and Al Jazeera’s breakdown have the full timeline. What I will tell you is this: the ripples from last night are gonna be felt for a long, long time.

Ray Caldwell has covered international conflicts for over two decades. He is a former embedded journalist with US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.