U.S. invades Venezuela, kidnaps President and First Lady

In the early hours of Saturday, the United States launched an unprovoked attack on Venezuelan soil. As American warplanes dropped bombs on the capital city of Caracas, U.S. Special Forces kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. The Venezuelan government has denounced the action as an “imperialist attack” and called the “people to the streets!”—a complete mobilization of the armed forces and citizen militias.

The incursion into Venezuela comes after months of American aggression against Venezuelan maritime targets and years of economic sanctions. The United States has carried out extrajudicial executions against Venezuelan fishermen and seized an oil tanker under the justification of “fighting narcoterrorism”—a charge laid against President Maduro and the Venezuelan people without evidence. 

On X (formerly Twitter), U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the presidential couple has been indicted in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, where they will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Rather than presenting any evidence that Venezuela is a “narco-terror state,” President Donald Trump has openly stated that “[Venezuela] took our oil rights—we had a lot of oil there. As you know, they threw our companies out, and we want it back.” 

Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves on the planet, and in 2007 finalized the nationalization of its reserves when it seized control of fields controlled by foreign oil oligarchs, such as U.S. ExxonMobil or Norwegian Statoil. 

In the fall of 2025, Maduro and Trump were in talks to reopen “all existing and future oil and gold projects to American companies, and reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China”. The U.S. government suspended these talks at the behest of the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio. All diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Venezuela were cut on October 6 of last year. 

Instead of dealing with Maduro, the U.S. could deal with Venezuela’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, who has stated, “Forget about the Saudis. We have more oil, infinite potential. We’re going to open markets, we’re going to kick off the government from the oil sector. We are going to privatize all our industries.” 

Rubio claims he “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody,” leaving the future of the country unclear. 

Despite echoing American accusations of Venezuela’s Bolivarian government “lacking legitimacy,” the European Union has called for “restraint” and adherence to the UN charter and international law. 

China, the largest importer of Venezuelan oil, “is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the use of force by the U.S. against a sovereign country and the use of force against the president of a country.”

The Russian foreign ministry has stated that “the pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideological animosity has prevailed over business pragmatism and the willingness to build relationships based on trust and predictability.”

Military action in Venezuela marks the largest U.S. intervention in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama—an invasion that occurred with similar justification after then President Manuel Noriega had fallen out of favour with U.S. intelligence services.