In the early hours of Saturday morning, residents of Caracas were startled awake by the sound of explosions rattling across the Venezuelan capital.
It was a particularly alarming start to the day for two of them in particular: the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
US President Donald Trump had sent an elite unit to drag them from their bedroom, place them on a plane, and fly them to New York where they would be thrown in jail.
The capture, and the airstrikes that accompanied it, represented a shocking climax to months of pressure from Washington.
Here, we look at how Maduro was captured, his political career and what led to this point.
How was Maduro captured?
Maduro and his wife were in their home at the Fort Tiuana military installation in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, ruling party leader Nahum Fernandez said.
He has accused Trump of ‘kidnapping’ Venezuela’s leader and first lady and said: ‘That’s where they bombed. And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.’
Trump confirmed the Venezuelan leader and his wife were flown out of the country, which the US president added ‘was done in conjunction with US Law Enforcement’.
The operation was carried out by the US military’s elite special forces known as Delta Force, which has previously carried out some top-secret operations.
Those include the hunt for Bin Laden in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks in New York City, the Iraq hostage rescue in 2015 and the raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
Trump described Maduro’s capture as a ‘brilliant operation’ and told the New York Times in a phone interview that the capture was a result of ‘a lot of good planning and a lot of great, great troops and great people.’
So far, there has only been confirmation that the couple were flown out of Venezuela, as Maduro’s whereabouts have yet to be disclosed.
Who is Nicolas Maduro?
Nicolas Maduro, a member of the United Socialist Party, became the president of Venezuela in 2013 after serving as vice president the year before under President Hugo Chavez.
Maduro was appointed after Chavez died of cancer and won an election by a slim majority.
His tenure as Venezuelan president has not been smooth sailing, and began with a national uprising amid food shortages and decreasing living standards in the country.
Venezuela held protests and daily marches, causing Maduro’s popularity to plummet.
Six months after being elected, Maduro was given the power to rule by decree, which allows for a swift change of law, often without legislative approval, to address Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis.
This was met with strong opposition, prompting the US government to later describe Maduro as a ‘dictator’ and bar him from entering the US.
In 2019, he was sworn in for a second term despite international calls for him to step down amid Venezuela’s economic crisis.
The legitimacy of his next term was rejected by the US, Canada and 17 Latin American governments, at the time.
Maduro won another presidential election in 2024, resulting in mass protests again, after the voting process was tarnished with allegations of foul play.
In 2020, Maduro was indicted by the Trump administration, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narcotraffickers and that he had conspired to import cocaine to the US.
The United States Department of Justice announced in August 2025 that it would issue a $50 million reward for the arrest of Maduro.
A month later, it was reported that the US allegedly tried to capture Maduro through a covert operation, before he and his wife were captured on Saturday.
Why were Maduro and his wife captured?
The US captured the Venezuelan president to face drug and weapons charges after US attorney general Pam Bondi confirmed that Maduro and his wife will be indicted in New York later on today.
She said Maduro will face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.
US vice president JD Vance wrote on X Trump’s latest actions against Venezuela’s leader demonstrate that the president ‘means what he says’.
‘The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,’ Vance wrote.
‘Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.
‘Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.’
The US administration has long accused Venezuela of playing a major role in supplying illegal drugs, which Maduro denies.
The lead-up to Maduro and his wife’s capture comes after months of US strikes on vessels, which Trump claimed contained illegal substances and drug traffickers, in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September.
The Trump administration said the US was in ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels, and said the vessel attacks were necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the US.
What happens next?
Following their capture, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, confirmed that Maduro and Cilia Flores will both be indicted in the Southern District of New York.
Bondi added that the couple will ‘soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts’.
For Venezuela, it is not known who is currently running the country.
But under Venezuelan law, vice president Delcy Rodriguez would take power.
Trump said he will address questions about Maduro and his wife’s whereabouts, and Venezuela’s future during a press conference at Mar-A-Lago, Florida, at 11am Eastern Time, or 4pm in the UK.
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