Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife are travelling to New York after being captured by the US, Donald Trump tells Fox News.
The US president adds the pair have been indicted in New York, and will travel to the state via helicopter and ship.
“They killed a lot of people and a lot of American people, even people in their own country,” Trump says.
Maduro was captured from location ‘more like a fortress than a house’ – Trump
“We were going to do this four days ago but the weather was not perfect,” Trump tells Fox News.
“The weather has to be perfect… all of a sudden it opened up and we said go,” he says.
He adds that, when they captured Maduro, he was “in a house that was more like a fortress than a house” with “solid steel all around”.
Reiterating that he doesn’t think any US soldiers were killed, Trump adds “a couple of guys were hit but they came back and they’re supposed to be in pretty good shape”.
Trump says he told Maduro to ‘surrender’ a week before attack
More from US President Donald Trump, who is speaking to Fox News.
Trump says that the US is going to be “strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry moving forward.
He adds that he spoke to Maduro “a week ago” and that he told him “you have to give up, you have to surrender”.
“We had to do something much more surgical, much more powerful”, Trump says.
Trump says ‘few injuries but no deaths on our side’
Donald Trump is speaking on Fox News right now.
The US president says there were “a few injuries but no deaths on our side” during the strikes on Venezuela.
We’ll bring you more on what he has to say in the next few moments.
Maduro’s capture shows ‘Trump means what he says’ – US vice president
We’ve just heard from US Vice President JD Vance.
He says in a post on X: “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.
“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.”
Apprehension on the streets of Caracas
In Caracas, there is apprehension in the streets. People barely speak out, but there are queues in pharmacies and supermarkets.
WhatsApp groups are bursting with messages and videos, while people in the streets of Eastern Caracas are mostly silent.
“Do you know what happened?” a woman asks me in a low voice outside a plaza. She went out to get medicine for her nerves but found the 24-hour pharmacy closed.
“Please don’t record me,” she asks. A strong smell, reminding me of tear gas – so familiar from the famous protests of 2017 – seeps through my window.
I’m in a high-rise building, in the eastern part of the capital, Caracas. My mother notices it too.
Earlier, on the balconies of nearby buildings, there was an outburst of euphoria minutes after a message began circulating on social media from President Donald Trump announcing the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
But the shouts lasted only seconds.
A supermarket that also operates 24-hours kept its shutters down for most of the morning, with a line of people waiting for it to open.
Analysis Growing fear Trump’s attack could trigger greater destabilisation in Venezuela
Although it had been a possibility for months, what happened today has come as a shock to Venezuelans.
For the opposition to Nicolás Maduro’s government, this is a moment many have been waiting for for years.
It is an opposition that has tried everything: from boycotting the 2018 elections, which it considered fraudulent, to taking part in electoral processes despite the risks, and mobilising massively in the streets when the National Electoral Council — controlled by figures close to Chavismo — announced results in 2024 favourable to Maduro without presenting evidence.
From Venezuela, some messages of support for the US attacks are reaching me.
Some opposition supporters saw them as a last resort, a final hope to put an end to a government that much of the international community describes as dictatorial, and whose leader has been accused by Washington and other Latin American governments of heading a drug-trafficking network.
Meanwhile, among Maduro’s supporters, questions are growing — whispered quietly and echoed on social media: Where is the president? And who is in power?
Many share the fear that the attack and Maduro’s announced departure could trigger even greater destabilisation in a country already battered by years of political, economic and social crisis.
The locations of the strikes
Since early this morning, BBC Verify have been working through a number of videos showing explosions, fire and smoke in various locations around Caracas to identify which sites have been targeted.
So far, we have confirmed four locations.
- Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base aka La Carlota – footage filmed at a distance shows two plumes of smoke and an explosion close to this military airfield in Caracas
- Port La Guaira – Caracas’ main conduit to the Caribbean Sea, located in Miranda state. Footage filmed nearby shows several plumes of smoke rising into the air, and at least one fire burning
- Higuerote Airport – also located in Miranda state, just east of Caracas. Footage filmed from two angles shows fire and repeated flashes on the ground, a possible indication of secondary explosions
- Fuerte Tiuna – The Getty news agency has released images of fire burning in the direction and damage to vehicles at this key military facility in Caracas. Nasa satellites also detected heat signatures in the area at around the time that the US strikes took place
‘Deeply concerning’ and a ‘criminal attack’ – reaction to strikes in Venezuela
- Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urges citizens to remain calm and to trust the country’s leadership and military. Reuters news agency cites him as saying: “The world needs to speak out about this attack.”
- President of Colombia Gutavo Petro says troops are being deployed to the Venezuela border and calls The OAS (Organization of American States) and the UN (United Nations) to “meet immediately”
- Chilean President Gabriel Boric shares his country’s “concern and condemnation regarding the military actions of the United States”
- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel says his country “denounces and urgently demands the reaction of the international community against the criminal attack by the US on Venezuela”
- The president of Guyana – which has been in a long-running territorial dispute with bordering Venezuela – Irfaan Ali says the country is “monitoring the situation” and that “security forces are fully mobilised in accordance with our security plans”
- Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says: “Trinidad and Tobago continues to maintain peaceful relations with the people of Venezuela”
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
