Press conference to follow, Trump says
US President Donald Trump has confirmed US strikes on Venezuela on Saturday and said President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the country,” in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country,” Trump said.
Trump said details were “to follow”.
“There will be a news conference today at 11 am (5 pm CET) at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President Donald J Trump.”
All Venezuelan armed forces to deploy, defence minister says
Venezuela will launch a “massive deployment of all land, air, naval, riverine and missile capabilities … for comprehensive defence,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said in a video statement shared on social media.
Lopez also accused the US of hitting residential areas in a wave of strikes early Saturday.
The “invading” US forces “have desecrated our soil, going so far as to strike, using missiles and rockets fired from their combat helicopters, residential areas populated by civilians,” he claimed.
US strikes on Venezuela: What we know so far
The United States dramatically escalated its confrontation with Venezuela in the early hours of Saturday morning, conducting what US President Donald Trump described as “large-scale strikes” against military targets in and around Caracas.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the country” following the operation, which he said was conducted jointly with US law enforcement agencies.
Residents of Caracas reported hearing at least seven explosions around 2 am local time, with eyewitnesses describing strikes on key military installations including the La Carlota airfield and the Fuerte Tiuna military base.
The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.
The strike came as the Trump administration has escalated pressure on 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.
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. Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.