Regime Change: U.S. Forces Capture President Maduro, Flown Out Of Venezuela, Trump says

President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the Country” early Saturday morning, confirming a “large scale strike” had been carried out by U.S. forces, as explosions were reported in Caracas and elsewhere. 

The U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture Maduro, officials told CBS News.

A Republican senator said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had indicated that Maduro would face criminal charges in the U.S., where he was indicted years ago, and that Rubio “anticipates no further action in Venezuela.” The Trump administration has long accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies.

The strikes follow months of U.S. military buildup in the region, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and numerous other warships positioned in the Caribbean.

In recent weeks the U.S. has seized two oil tankers off Venezuela, launched deadly strikes on more than 30 boats the administration says were carrying drugs, and struck what President Trump called “the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”

President Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday morning 35 years to the day after U.S. forces arrested another indicted Latin American leader, the late Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

A onetime U.S. ally and CIA informant, Noriega led Panama for much of the 1980s, but he fell out of favor with Washington toward the end of his reign due to allegations of drug trafficking. 

Former President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, leading Noriega to hide out in the Vatican embassy before surrendering to U.S. authorities on Jan. 3, 1990. He was convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and spent 20 years in an American prison before being sent to France to serve a money laundering sentence, and then to Panama where he was imprisoned on murder and other charges. 

Noriega died in Panama in 2017.

Meanwhile, top European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas said Saturday that she had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the EU’s ambassador in Caracas. 

She said the EU was “closely monitoring the situation” and noted that it had “repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy.”  

“Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected,” Kallas wrote on social media. “We call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority.”

Russia and Iran were among the many nations to react quickly to the U.S. military strikes on Venezuela and President Trump announcing the capture of the Latin American nation’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Iran condemned the attack, calling it a “flagrant violation of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of” Venezuela, according to the AFP news agency.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of “an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply concerning and condemnable” in a statement, according to the Reuters news agency.

“The pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded,” the statement said, adding a call for the prevention of “further escalation,” dialogue, and backing other calls for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Written with reports from CBS News