Overview
- President Donald Trump announced that Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores were captured during nighttime attacks and removed from Venezuela.
- U.S. Justice official Pamela Bondi confirmed formal indictments in the Southern District of New York, with charges including narcoterrorism, cocaine‑importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.
- Reports describe the pair detained in a fortified residence in Caracas and flown out of the country after an operation that struck sites such as La Carlota airfield and Fuerte Tiuna.
- Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister said her country did not participate in the U.S. operation, reflecting regional sensitivity around the intervention as U.S. forces have ramped up Caribbean deployments.
- Flores is a longtime power broker in chavismo—first woman to lead the National Assembly and former procuradora—whose profile includes the 2015 DEA arrests and later U.S. convictions of two nephews and subsequent sanctions in 2018.