The United States Military has captured the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, in an incredible early morning raid in Caracas.

 

Smoke rises from the La Carlota airport in Caracas Venezuela. AP. 

The United States Military has captured the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro in a incredible lightning raid on Caracas. AP. Explosions from airstrikes in Caracas were captured on video along with attacks by US attack helicopters. Maduro was successfully captured along with his wife in the raid. The attack barely lasted 30 minutes and it is unclear if there will be any further action. The operation came a week after President Donald Trump announced an attack on a drug port in Venezuela, the first attack on Venezuelan soil in the low intensity drug conflict. It is unclear who is in control of Venezuela with Maduro in custody. 

The New York Times and CNN have live updates for this story. 

pic.twitter.com/s95IpxZnSH This is an attack helicopter attack on an airbase in Caracas Venezuela. Not sure if it's an Apache or Venom, but either way, crazy video.

— Jeff H (@politicswarblog) January 3, 2026

My Comment:

 I will admit to being caught flat-footed by this operation. I had assumed we would have seen many more months of pressure tactics targeting Venezuela and a few more strikes targeting the country before we went for Maduro himself. I guess the timeline was pushed up quite a bit. 

If I was caught flat-footed, the Venezuelan military was caught totally asleep. The New York Times say that there were zero US casualties in this raid, which is incredible. Indeed, in none of the video I have seen was there any indication of return fire from the Venezuelans. No air defenses were apparently launched against US planes and helicopters, no planes were launched and there were not any real reports of gunfire on the ground. 

This was a special forces operation. Supposedly it was a Delta Force operation, though they obviously had a lot of help. The 160th SOAR "Nightstalkers", the Army Special Forces air unit, have been confirmed to be involved as well. And I would assume that the Navy helped with the bombing campaign. Either way, the rather pathetic military of Venezuela was unable to do anything about this operation. 

I do wonder if someone in Maduro's government cut a deal with the United States. It's possible that in exchange for amnesty someone ordered Venezuela's air defenses to stand down. They have a few SAM's, MANPADS and flack guns and they also have a few F-16's and SU-30 Flankers. But none of those weapons appear to have been used in this raid. Though the raid was a total surprise, it does strike me as a bit suspicious that none of those systems were used at all. It's even possible that Maduro himself was in on the deal, but that seems unlikely at this point. 

What happens next is an open question. Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was not taken in the raid and is presumably in control of the country, but who knows if that will continue. I know that Venezuela also has a major opposition movement and they may be able to take power. And I am guessing they probably will, Rodriguez now understands that what happened to Maduro can and will happen to him as well. 

What I don't expect is the kind of "nation building" mission we got stuck with in Iraq and Afghanistan. We aren't sending in huge divisions of troops, we just bombed a city and took out the leader. There were a few people that were angry that we were supposedly getting into another war, but that obviously isn't going to happen. 

I am not sure how the reaction to this is going to be. I think some of the doves in the Republican Party might be a little upset for awhile, but given the mission was a total success they won't have much of a leg to stand on. Progressive Democrats will wail and gnash their teeth and may make noise about the War Powers Act, but they won't actually be able to do anything. But I think just about everyone else will be on board with this operation. 

As for the justification for this? I guess I don't care. Maduro was a socialist and that's good enough for m. He, along with the late Hugo Chavez, ran Venezuela into the ground. Given how rich in resources Venezuela was it's absurd that they were able to do so. Maduro was involved in the drug trafficking that kills Americans every day and he's generally a bad person. 

Regardless, I have to say that I am incredibly impressed by what our military accomplished here. There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong here and they didn't. Indeed, this should be a pretty big message to both our enemies and allies that America isn't going anywhere and we still have one of the most impressive militaries in the world.