The US strikes and raid that captured Venezuela's leader raise some big questions. Here's what we know.

US military forces struck several locations in Venezuela as part of a raid to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife on Saturday.

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

• The US conducted a "large-scale strike" on Venezuela, capturing president Maduro and his wife.
• Maduro is indicted in New York for drug trafficking and weapons charges.
• Trump said the US would run Venezuela until a "safe, proper" election could occur.

The US executed targeted, large-scale attacks in Venezuela's capital city, Caracas, overnight.

President Donald Trump said Saturday American forces struck the country's military, turned off the lights in the city, and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for prosecution in New York.

The assault news has raised big questions. Here's what we know right now.

What did the US military just do in Venezuela?

The US carried out airstrikes in Venezuela early on Saturday.

Luis JAIMES / AFP

Early Saturday morning, Trump revealed on Truth Social that the US military carried out a "large-scale attack against Venezuela" and that the leader had been captured and taken out of the country.

The US president didn't seek Congressional approval prior to the mission. Congress, however, was notified afterward.

Trump told Fox News he watched the capture of Maduro play out in real time from a room inside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida alongside military generals.

"I was told by real military people that there's no other country on Earth that can do such a maneuver," he shared during a phone interview with Fox News. "If you would have seen what happened, I mean, I watched it literally, like I was watching a television show."

Trump said the raid was "extremely complex," more so than the Midnight Hammer operation against Iran's nuclear sites conducted last year. Maduro and his wife were taken to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.

Trump said US assets involved included land, air, and sea, including a "massive number" of aircraft and troops. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said the apprehension mission, called Absolute Resolve, was based on months of intelligence-gathering, including watching Maduro's patterns of life, and involved all elements of the joint force, from space and cyber assets to traditional combat forces.

The assault involved 150 aircraft — fighter jets, bombers, electronic warfare planes, intelligence and surveillance aircraft, and helicopters and rotary aircraft — that provided "layered effects" to clear the way for the interdiction force to slip in with the "element of surprise" into downtown Caracas. Fighters and different drones covered the extraction.

There were no US personnel or equipment losses, Trump said; however, he did say that troops were hit, along with a helicopter that he said was hit "pretty hard." Caine said the US responded to hostile fire with "overwhelming" force.

What has the Trump administration been saying about why this is necessary?

The US military has built up a massive force presence in the Caribbean in recent months, including aircraft at an airport in Puerto Rico.

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP

Tensions have been rising for months between Venezuela's Maduro regime and the Trump administration, which has ramped up its rhetoric while increasing military action nearby.

The US has blamed Venezuela for pushing deadly drugs into the country, as well as using its oil industry, which the Trump administration says the US built and intends to take back, to fund narco-terrorism and other criminal activities.

The administration has labeled cartels and the Maduro regime terrorist organizations. Trump has also called Maduro an illegitimate leader.

What's been happening in the lead-up to this assault?

Trump said a US helicopter took fire during the operation in Venezuela.

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP

The US has been launching attacks against alleged drug trafficking boats since September 2025, with over 100 people killed and others missing or captured.

A massive US force presence, including warships and combat aircraft, has been in the Caribbean to combat narcotics trafficking and pressure Venezuela for months.

More recently, US forces began executing a blockade of oil tankers out of Venezuela in an effort to enforce American oil sanctions, hurting a key Venezuelan export and straining its economy.

Maduro's government said that the purpose of the US attack on Venezuela was to "seize Venezuela's strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, in an attempt to forcibly break the nation's political independence."

How unusual is this?

A destroyed air defense unit at a Venezuelan military base.

Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/REUTERS

The US has removed the leaders of sovereign states in the past. For instance, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, it captured Saddam Hussein after the Bush administration asserted the Iraqi president had weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was later convicted for crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court and executed in December 2006.

A lack of evidence that Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction led to criticisms against the Bush administration's motives.

Much earlier, Panamanian military dictator Manual Noriega was also a target of American military forces during the US invasion of Panama from December 1989 to January 1990, partially prompted by his attempt to annul the results of the 1989 Panamanian general election. US courts had charged Noriega with drug smuggling and money laundering, and the Panamanian official was captured in January 1990 and taken to Miami, where he was convicted on most of the charges.

Both Noriega and Maduro were heads of state indicted by US federal courts, they were accused of using state power to facilitate drug trafficking, and the US could argue in both cases those actions taken against them were law enforcement.

The US has also conducted military action to kill prominent foreign figures. Exactly six years ago, US military personnel successfully assassinated Qasem Soleimani, a senior Iranian military officer, in a drone strike in Baghdad.

The US designated Soleimani a terrorist in 2005. In response to Soleimani's assassination in January 2020, Iran launched missiles against US military bases in Iraq, injuring 110 US troops.

What's happening now?

Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York, and Trump said the US will be involved in the next steps for the Venezuelan government.

Carlos Jasso/Reuters

Maduro and his wife are on their way to New York. Pamela Bondi, US attorney general, said that Maduro had been charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, as well as conspiracy against the US.

"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," Bondi said on X.

On Saturday morning, Trump posted a picture of Maduro in custody on Truth Social. The photo showed Maduro aboard USS Iwo Jima.

Venezuelan president Maduro in custody on the USS Iwo Jima.

Truth Social

By law, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez should assume power in Maduro's absence. But Trump said the US would "run the country" until a "safe, proper" election can occur.

The president also added that US oil companies would be returning to Venezuela.

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