Maduro and wife to face criminal charges in New York after the US hit Venezuela with a "large-scale strike"
The Venezuelan government called it an "imperialist attack" and urged citizens to take to the streets.
The US hit Venezuela with a "large-scale strike" early on Saturday and said its president, Nicolas Maduro , had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington .
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York . Ms Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would "soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts".
Mr Maduro was indicted in 2020 on "narco-terrorism" conspiracy charges, but it was not previously known that his wife had been.
The night-time operation was announced by US President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
It echoed the US invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega , in 1990 - exactly 36 years ago on Saturday.
Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas , the capital, as Mr Maduro's government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations.
The Venezuelan government called it an "imperialist attack" and urged citizens to take to the streets.
It was not immediately clear who was running the country. Mr Trump announced the developments on Truth Social shortly after 4.30am Florida time.
Mr Maduro, Mr Trump said, "has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This operation was done in conjunction with US law enforcement. Details to follow." He set a news conference for 4pm GMT on Saturday .
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau says the military action and seizure of Mr Maduro marks "a new dawn for Venezuela ", saying that "the tyrant is gone".
He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio , reposted a post from July that said Mr Maduro "is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government".
Under Venezuelan law the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez , would take power. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.
She appeared on state TV to say that the government does not know where the president and his wife are after US forces captured them.
"We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores," Ms Rodriguez said. "We demand proof of life."
Mr Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on "narco-terrorism" conspiracy charges in the Southern District of New York .
He last appeared on state television on Friday while meeting a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas, Venezuela's capital.
The explosions in Caracas early on the third day of 2026 - at least seven blasts - sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions.
It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. The apparent attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes, but it was unclear if more actions lay ahead, though Mr Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out "successfully".
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The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on US commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of "ongoing military activity" ahead of the explosions.
The strike came as the Trump administration has escalated pressure on Mr Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States .
The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels - the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September.
Mr Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs.
Mr Maduro has decried the US military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighbourhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape sky as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky.
Other footage showed an urban landscape with cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press .
Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas , while another military installation in the capital was without power.
"The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes," said Carmen Hidalgo , a 21-year-old office worker. "We felt like the air was hitting us."
Mr Trump is at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida , where he has spent the past two weeks for the holiday season. His public schedule showed he was set to receive an intelligence briefing on Friday evening, hours before the reported strikes.
Venezuela's government responded to the attack with a call to action.
"People to the streets!" it said in a statement. "The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilisation plans and repudiate this imperialist attack."
The website of the US embassy in Venezuela , a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was "aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas ".
"US citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place," the warning said.
US Senator Mike Lee posted his potential concerns, reflecting a view from the right flank in the Congress .
"I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorisation for the use of military force," Republican Mr Lee said on X.
He also posted on X that he had spoken to Mr Rubio, who briefed him on the strike. Mr Rubio told Mr Lee that Mr Maduro "has been arrested by US personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States ".
Mr Lee said Mr Rubio informed him that "he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody".
Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes and Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a US "act of armed aggression" against Venezuela in a statement posted on its Telegram channel on Saturday.
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" Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, outside intervention," the statement said.
The ministry called for dialogue to prevent further escalation and said it reaffirmed its "solidarity" with the Venezuelan people and government, adding that Russia supports calls for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
It was not clear if the US Congress had been officially notified of the strikes.
Politicians from both political parties in Congress have raised deep reservations to the US attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast and the Congress has not specifically approved an authorisation for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
The US military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
They followed a major build-up of American forces in the waters off South America , including the arrival in November of the nation's most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.
Mr Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that the US is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels.
On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking.
Mr Maduro also said in a pre-taped interview aired Thursday that the US wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the pressure campaign.
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