Above photo: Smoke rises in Caracas, Venezuela on January 3, 2026 following a US bombing campaign. Photo via X.
The Trump administration had threatened that it would carry out land strikes against Venezuela for months.
It even declared that the government of Venezuela is a “terrorist organization”, interpreted as a pre-text for bypassing the US Congress in order to take unilateral military action.
UPDATE: We understand that President Maduro and Cilia Flores are being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Protests are being planned at the detention center and other locations.
Explosions were reported at key military bases, civilian areas, and other sites across the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and surrounding areas in the early hours of Saturday, January 3. The Venezuelan government said in an official statement that the attack was perpetrated by the United States and constitutes a “grave military aggression” against “Venezuelan territory and population”.
In a post on his Truth Social platform after the attack, Trump said that the Venezuelan president had been removed from the country by the US, with more details to come in a press conference in Mar-a-Lago at 11 am.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.”
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez spoke to Telesur shortly after and confirmed that “Following this brutal situation and brutal attack, we are unaware of the whereabouts of the President Nicolás Maduro and that of the First Lady Cilia Flores.”
Rodríguez demanded that the Trump administration “provide immediate proof of the life of President Maduro and of the first lady.”
She addressed the Venezuelan people and informed that, “President Maduro was already very clear and had already warned the Venezuelan people that an attack of this type could take place because of the United States’ desperate greed for energy [resources] … He has given very clear instructions to the Bolivarian Armed Forces so that in perfect military, popular, and police unity, all plans to defend the homeland would be activated … We demand respect for international law. We condemn this brutal and savage aggression against our people that has cost the life of officials, members of the military, that become martyrs of our homeland, and that has cost the lives of innocent Venezuelan civilians.”
Rodríguez declared: “We will defend our homeland. No one can undermine the historic legacy of our liberator Simón Bolívar. The Venezuelan people in perfect national unity should be active to defend its natural resources, and should be active to defend the most sacred that a homeland can have, which is its right to independence, its right to the future, its right to have a free homeland without any of external tutelage and not becoming anyone’s colony. We will never again be slaves, We are sons and daughters of Bolívar. And we once again demand an immediate sign of life of Nicolás Maduro and a sign of life of the first lady, the first combatant, Cilia Flores.”
The airstrikes come after repeated threats by US President Donald Trump that his government would soon carry out “land strikes” against Venezuela. The first of which reportedly occurred on December 30, when Trump announced that the US had bombed a docking facility on the coast of Venezuela.
An “Attempt To Impose A Colonial War”
The government in Caracas has called the bombing campaign an imperialist attack by the United States and an attempt to “impose a colonial war”.
“The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources,” reads the communiqué. “Particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the political independence of the Nation.”
According to sources in Venezuela, the targeted sites include, but are not limited to:
- Tiuna Fort – major military complex in the southwest of Caracas
- La Carlota Base – airbase/airport in Caracas
- La Guaira Port and Naval Command – port facility and naval command located in La Guaira state
- Higuerote Airport – airport in the coastal town of Higuerote, in the state of Miranda
María Corina Machado, the far-right Venezuelan opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, told CBS News in mid-December she was fully supportive of Washington’s recent strategy against her country. When asked if she’d welcome US military action in Venezuela, the Nobel laureate did not rule it out.
“I will welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go,” she said.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported in a statement two hours after the attacks that “missiles and explosives were launched from US helicopters and aircraft,” and that civilian areas were also hit in the attacks. As of now, the casualties are still being counted.
In response, the Venezuelan government has activated all of its national defense plans “to guarantee peace and sovereignty” and “to immediately transition to armed struggle”.
“Today, with the spirit of Bolívar, Miranda, and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise once again to defend their independence in the face of imperial aggression.”
From Boat Strikes And Piracy To Open War
The US airstrikes are a massive escalation in its recent military campaign against the Bolivarian nation.
In December, the US began seizing Venezuelan oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea by force, as Trump bragged that they would “keep the oil”. The Maduro government called the seizures of oil “acts of piracy”. The White House, on the other hand, continued pursuing Venezuelan oil ships, claiming that the nationalization of Venezuelan oil in the 1970s amounted to “theft” from the United States.
This justification confirmed suspicions, both in Caracas and around the world, that the recent US aggression against the South American nation is driven by economic factors rather than national security concerns or drug trafficking.
Since September, 2025, the US military has carried out at least 35 boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific against alleged drug traffickers which have claimed the lives of at least 115 Colombian, Trinidadian, and Venezuelan citizens. The unilateral strikes have been widely condemned as extrajudicial executions.
On December 16, 2025, when announcing the naval blockade on Venezuela, Trump declared that because of the “theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
Although an FTO designation does not authorize military force or war, the Trump administration appears to have used it to attempt to build a legal case for escalation, while bypassing traditional constitutional and congressional checks on war powers.
International Condemnation
The reported attacks have already been met with widespread international and domestic condemnation, with many citing that the attacks are a flagrant violation of the UN Charter as well as US law.
Cuba
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared that “Cuba denounces and demands an URGENT reaction from the international community against the criminal attack of the US against Venezuela.” The Cuban leader also emphasized that the attack is against the entire region, “Our Zone of Peace is being brutally attacked. State terrorism against the strong Venezuelan people and against Our America.”
Similarly, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez stated that Cuba “strongly condemns the ongoing military aggression by the US against Venezuela. The bombings and acts of war against Caracas and other locations in the country are cowardly acts against a nation that has not attacked the US or any other country.”
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared a statement from his government expressing “deep concern” about the attacks and rejecting “any unilateral military action that can worsen the situation [in the region] or put the civilian population at risk”. “The Colombian Republic reiterates its conviction that peace, respect of international law, and the protection of life and human dignity should prevail over any form of armed confrontation,” the statement reads.
Petro also called on the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) to meet as soon as possible.
Opposition has also been voiced by left parties across the world.
India
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) wrote in a statement, “We strongly condemn the United States’ military aggression and intimidation against Venezuela, which violates international law, the UN Charter, and the principle of national sovereignty. These actions reflect the US’s long-standing imperialist policy of intervention and coercion aimed at destabilising independent nations and controlling their resources. We stand in solidarity with the people and government of Venezuela.”
Türkiye
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) Kemal Okuyan condemned the attacks against Venezuela in a statement and declared that “now is the time to stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela.”
Palestine
Palestinian groups including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have also issued statements condemning the unilateral US attacks against Venezuela. The PFLP highlighted that continued US military escalation could ignite new global conflict zones and that the attacks constitute an attack on all nations that seek to chart their own independent paths.
Honduras
The LIBRE Party in Honduras, which is currently facing what they have termed a US-backed “electoral coup”, issued a statement through its coordinator Manuel Zelaya, strongly condemning the US aggression against Venezuela. “The imperialist can bomb cities, impose criminal sanctions, and unleash war, but they will never kill history, the dignity, nor the sovereign will of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Latin America And The Caribbean
ALBA Movements, a network of social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, called the attacks a “criminal act of war”, “in direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which threatens peace, sovereignty, and stability throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. This aggression has a clear objective: the plundering of Venezuela’s strategic resources, especially oil and gold, through a colonial policy of military intervention and regime change.” The network also called on people across the world to speak out against the attacks and mobilize in front of US embassies and consulates.
Protests Planned In The United States
Opposition within the United States continues to grow against the unilateral attacks against Venezuela. A Quinnipiac poll released in mid-December showed that 63% of people in the United States oppose military action inside Venezuela.
Meanwhile, anti-war groups in the United States have already called for a day of action on January 3, to oppose the US military escalation.
The ANSWER Coalition wrote in a statement announcing the actions in over a dozen cities in the US, “We need to take to the streets and say no to another endless war! The people of this country do not want another war! A US war would cause death and destruction for the people of Venezuela. The war machine consumes an unimaginable amount of our tax dollars while working families struggle to make ends meet. In an all-out war with Venezuela, it will be working class young people who are sent to kill and die, not the children of executives at ExxonMobil and LockheedMartin. The people need to take to the streets and say no to Trump’s war on Venezuela!”
US Senator from Arizona Ruben Gallego wrote on X, “This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”
