During the American night of yesterday, 3 January 2026, the United States carried out a brilliant military operation in Caracas that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro, in power since 2013, was seized from the presidential palace and transferred into custody in New York, where he will face charges of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and arms trafficking before a federal court. For several weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump had announced that he had exhausted his patience with the Venezuelan dictator, accusing him of supporting drug smuggling into the United States as well as pursuing a foreign policy hostile to Washington’s interests.
Since his rise to the presidency, Maduro’s leadership has been consistently contested, particularly because of the extensive electoral fraud that allowed him to remain in power and his ties to drug cartels. The most recent elections in 2024, in particular, were marked by widespread fraud and by the exclusion of one of the opposition’s most prominent candidates. Moreover, in recent years there have been several protests against Maduro, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the flight of thousands of Venezuelans from the country. Because of his alleged links to drug cartels, Maduro had also been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020 on charges of narco-terrorism.
In recent months, contacts had reportedly taken place between senior U.S. and Venezuelan officials. According to leaks, Maduro himself allegedly begged Trump to allow him to remain in power in exchange for significant concessions. However, the U.S. president set a clear condition: the dictator’s exit from the scene. Faced with Maduro’s refusal to step down, Trump authorized the spectacular and surgical military operation of 3 January. In the months leading up to it, U.S. intelligence agents had already been operating in Venezuela to prepare the move; intelligence gathering proved crucial to the operation’s flawless outcome.
Once all of Maduro’s movements and habits had been studied, U.S. forces trained for months, while American pressure on Venezuela increased through the deployment of a considerable number of assets around the Latin American country and raids against vessels suspected of drug trafficking. Finally, after Trump’s authorization, the operation was launched: following a series of preparatory airstrikes and other diversionary actions, U.S. special forces helicopters transported troops to the compound where the South American dictator was residing. Within a short time, the special forces located and captured Maduro and his wife, who, after being taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima, were flown to the United States. No casualties among U.S. forces have been reported.
The international response has been largely critical, particularly from U.S. adversaries such as Russia and China, which condemned the operation as a violation of international law. In general, a transition phase now opens in the country. For the time being, the Trump administration appears willing to cooperate with Venezuela’s Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, provided that she shows similar readiness. A large-scale military operation to take control of the country does not appear imminent.
For the United States, the operation is a clear reminder of the Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed in 1823, which warns external powers outside the Western Hemisphere against interfering in the affairs of the continent, under penalty of possible intervention by Washington. The return of great-power competition and Moscow’s and Beijing’s ties with Caracas were certainly an additional factor behind the U.S. decision to act. For Washington, it is becoming increasingly problematic to have a hostile actor within its own hemisphere, especially in the Caribbean area and one rich in natural resources.
