{"id":56728,"date":"2026-01-03T12:31:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-captures-venezuelan-president-maduro-in-large-scale-strike-says-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:32:00","slug":"us-captures-venezuelan-president-maduro-in-large-scale-strike-says-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-captures-venezuelan-president-maduro-in-large-scale-strike-says-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"US captures Venezuelan President Maduro in large-scale strike, says Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social account, adding that further details would be shared later.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Saturday, Maduro declared a state of emergency, accusing the United States of \u201cvery serious military aggression\u201d after explosions and aircraft-like sounds were reported across Caracas. Footage published by Venezuelan television station NTN24 showed plumes of smoke rising from the city, with eyewitnesses describing chaotic scenes. \u201cMy heart was pumping and legs were shaking,\u201d one resident told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>The US has intensified its military operations in recent months, citing efforts to combat alleged drug smuggling linked to Venezuela, including strikes on speedboats and ports. Over the past few weeks, Trump has made repeated references to military actions in Venezuelan territory, with prior reports indicating strikes in Zulia, an oil-rich state, and the seizure of two sanctioned oil tankers.<\/p>\n<p>The Venezuelan government has condemned the US actions, calling them \u201cextremely serious military aggression\u201d and urging grassroots organisations and militias to mobilise in response. Maduro has consistently accused the Trump administration of attempting to force regime change in Caracas.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-100126 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/webp\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-373e3.webp\" alt=\"US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been captured following a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d by American forces. According to Trump, Maduro and his wife were \u201ccaptured and flown out of the country\u201d in an operation conducted alongside US law enforcement.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been captured following a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d by American forces. According to Trump, Maduro and his wife were \u201ccaptured and flown out of the country\u201d in an operation conducted alongside US law enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100127,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/fotoarte-trump-y-maduro.jpg-ebb82.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56728"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56728"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}