The United States launched a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas and several other sites in northern Venezuela around 2 a.m. local time on January 3. Strikes occurred simultaneously in Caracas and the other attack sites. The exact death toll is unknown, but reported numbers vary from 40 to 100 Venezuelan and Cuban civilians and military personnel. Seven US service members also sustained injuries in the attack.
During the attack, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were abducted and flown into the United States. They were taken on board the U.S.S. Iwo Jima and were transferred to the United States via the Guantanamo Bay Navy base, where they were then flown to Stewart Air National Guard Base. They arrived by helicopter in Manhattan and were taken to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Headquarters around 7 p.m. on Jan. 3. They are currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York City, facing charges for narcoterrorism in the United States.
This attack was largely unexpected and raises many questions about whether the US had the authority to conduct this strike. The strike is widely considered to have been against both domestic and international law, as Article II of the US Constitution mandates congressional approval for the use of military force in foreign countries, and Article 2, Section 4 of the UN charter agreement prohibits the threat or use of force against the political sovereignty of another nation. Despite President Trump campaigning largely on being “America First” and against American intervention, Venezuela marks the seventh country that he has conducted strikes in since his inauguration in January of last year, following Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Iran. Tensions between Venezuela and the United States have been building quickly since the beginning of Trump’s second term, when the Trump administration claimed that Maduro was working with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang that the Trump administration designated a “foreign terrorist organization,” to orchestrate drug trafficking and illegal immigration into the US. Then, starting in September of last year and continuing into late December, the Trump administration carried out a series of at least 35 strikes against small Venezuelan boats that it claimed were smuggling drugs, killing at least 100 people total. The situation continued to escalate until the attack on Jan. 3.
It is as yet unclear whether the US plans on further strikes against Venezuela, as no authority has confirmed an end to military action. Trump declined to rule out deploying US troops in Venezuela, saying he’s “not afraid of boots on the ground, if we have to.” As of now, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is serving as the acting president, having been sworn in two days after Maduro’s abduction. Rodriguez has served as vice president since 2018. In a press conference held on Jan. 3, Trump said that members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, will temporarily “run” Venezuela until there is a transition of power. How this might play out is as yet unclear.
It is widely believed that this strike was in part to gain control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the world’s largest at 17% of the global total. Venezuela’s oil industry is its main source of revenue, but due to Trump’s partial blockade of resources from Venezuela, the economy has suffered. The continuation of the blockade was expected to cause a humanitarian crisis due to a lack of funding for importing goods and providing basic services. Less than a week after the attack, Trump announced plans for an oil sales deal without extensive details. As of Jan. 14, the US has begun to broker the sale of about 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that have been trapped in the country since Trump imposed the blockade in December.
Reactions to the strikes have been mixed. Many Venezuelans are celebrating the capture of Maduro, who has attempted on many occasions to silence dissent in Venezuela, oftentimes with violence. It is widely believed that Maduro illegitimately won Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, with opposition both domestically and abroad maintaining that the opposition party won in the polls. The capture of Maduro has given many Venezuelans hope for the end of his administration, but with the hope also comes intense fear and uncertainty as to what is coming next and the impact that American operations in the country will have on the people of Venezuela. Americans, on the other hand, are largely in disapproval of the attacks. The United States has a long history of intervention in foreign countries in attempts to impose regime change, and it has often ended in disaster. A Reuters poll from shortly after the attack found that only one-third of Americans approved of the attack in Venezuela, and 72% worried that the United States would become too involved in the country.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/emma-ashford-maduro-venezuela-oil-foreign-policy/
Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores are escorted in custody by DEA agents at a New York City heliport.
