Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro captured by US forces in unprecedented night raid
By Iain McLean
Nicolas Maduro was captured from Venezuela after US forces carried out a night raid on Caracas on January 3rd, 2026, President Trump has revealed.
Speaking live from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he announced the success of “Operation Midnight Hammer” touting that no other nation could have achieved what he did.
President Trump has justified these actions by alleging that the reason for the operation was that he was “emptying his prisons and insane asylums" and "forcing" its inmates to migrate to the US.
He has also continuously claimed that Maduro was linked to two criminal organisations smuggling drugs into the United States, Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles.
These claims cannot be verified.
This is not the first time President Trump has targeted Maduro. In 2020 during Trump’s first term, federal prosecutors charged Nicolas Maduro claiming he “deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon".
Maduro’s court proceedings have begun in New York, but not without both domestic and national controversy.
The issues are twofold:
The first issue is with the methods Trump chose to take as it sets a “dangerous precedent for the world” claimed UN Security-General, António Guterres.
Other experts and politicians have also weighed in with First Minister John Swinney stating that although the Maduro regime was "illegitimate and authoritarian", he "cannot see how international law has been respected here".
Pakistani Envoy to the UN, Usman Jadoon stated, “Unilateral military action contravenes these sacrosanct principles and the doctrine of sovereign immunity,” further explaining, “Such actions set dangerous precedents that risk eroding the foundations of the global legal framework.”
The main concerns around this side of the criticisms are the contents of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. This article specifically details: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
This hasn’t deterred President Trump, however, as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Senator Lindsey Graham onboard Air Force One who stated: “You just wait for Cuba”.
He has also made similar threats to Mexico and Columbia.
Again, onboard Air Force One, Trump said: "Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long”.
In an appearance on Fox News, President Trump said: “Something has to be done about Mexico.”
Trump has also repeatedly stated since he was sworn in last year that the US needs Greenland and has doubled down on threatening to annex it following the success of the Venezuelan operation.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has chosen not to condemn the US action in Venezuela but has stated: “Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark.”
The other issue is the decision by the US Government to keep control of Venezuela, claiming that: “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing in comparison to what they could.” Trump said: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies… go in and spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country.”
This has sparked international outcry suggesting this was the main reason for the attack as Venezuela produces more crude oil than anywhere else in the world, totalling more than 300 billion barrels.
Experts fear that allowing the US to keep control of Venezuela after capturing Maduro sets a dangerous example for authoritarian regimes around the world.
Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner issued a statement, which said: "If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership? What stops [Russian President] Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it."
Globally, politically and legally, we are in uncharted waters and facing a very uncertain future. Trump’s aggressive action could potentially lead the world towards greater turmoil if he remains emboldened by the success of ‘Midnight Hammer’.