In the early morning of Jan. 3, 2026, the United States launched military strikes in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. This operation, code-named Operation Absolute Resolve, was carried out by the U.S. military’s Delta Force (the U.S. Army’s highly secretive “Tier One” special mission unit) and was designed with the intention of capturing the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The decision to attack Venezuela was made by President Donald J. Trump. The strikes came after a U.S. pressure campaign against the Maduro government, during which the Trump administration accused them of inundating the United States with drugs and gang members. Trump has also blamed Maduro for the arrival of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. These migrants are a part of an estimated eight million Venezuelans who have fled the country since 2013 due to repression and economic crisis.
Additionally, Trump has accused Maduro of “emptying his prisons and insane asylums” and “forcing” its inmates to migrate to the U.S. However, these claims have not been supported by evidence.
President Trump has also focused on the rise of drugs in the U.S., particularly fentanyl and cocaine. He has designated the Venezuelan criminal groups Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs). Trump has alleged that the latter of these groups is led by Maduro himself and recently announced plans to designate the Maduro government as an FTO. In response, Maduro denied the allegations, saying he is not a cartel leader and accuses the U.S. of using its “war on drugs” as a pretext to gain access to Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Pressure against Venezuela has continued to build since Trump began his second term in office last January. Trump doubled the reward for any information leading up to the capture of Maduro, and starting in September, the US began targeting vessels that they accused of carrying drugs from South America to the United States. Since then, there have been more than 30 vessels attacked, resulting in the killing of more than 110 people. These attacks have drawn particular scrutiny, and a former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court stated that the US military campaign fell into the category of a “planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.”
The US has deployed to the Caribbean a military force whose stated mission is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine into the US. Trump also declared a “total naval blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. This has increased a lot of financial pressure on Maduro, as oil is the main source of foreign revenue for the Maduro government. The US deployed military force has also played a key role in upholding this naval blockade.
Meanwhile, President Trump has stated that the United States would “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”