Venezuelan Leader Nicolas Maduro and His Wife Will Face Charges in New York City

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores have been captured and flown out of the country, US President Donald Trump announced early Saturday, following months of military pressure on the country. The detention was part of a “large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader,” Trump said, which included multiple explosions reported on military bases in the capitol city of Caracas and the deaths of an unknown number of Venezuelan officials, military personnel, and civilians across the region.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says via X that Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. The Venezuelan president faces charges of “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States," Bondi says. Both “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi says.

Those charges echo a 2020 indictment handed down by US federal court that named Maduro and 14 other officials in claims that included drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. The Department of Justice released a new indictment Saturday, reports the Associated Press, in which Maduro is accused as the head of “a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.”

In August, the US Department of State issued a “wanted” poster offering a reward “of up to $50 million” for information leading to Maduro's “arrest and/or conviction." In a press release, the State Department accused Maduro of rigging Venezuela's most recent presidential election, in which Maduro was awarded his third term as president. He also “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials,” the State Department claims. He is “the first target in the history of the Narcotics Rewards Program with a reward offer exceeding $25 million,” according to the Department of Justice.

According to a statement from the Venezuelan communications ministry, the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira were also struck in the attack. The Venezuelan government has declared a state of emergency, with Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodríguez saying via televised statement “We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. We demand proof of life.”

Tarek William Saab, the Attorney General of Venezuela, noted in a televised statement that the country suffered numerous losses in the attacks. “Innocent victims have been mortally wounded and others killed by this criminal terrorist attack," he said. According to an unnamed US official who spoke with the New York Times, America did not experience any casualties in the operation.

It's not immediately clear if Trump consulted Congress prior to the strike, which, under the War Powers Act, would likely be necessary to give him the legal power to enact a military operation such as this one on foreign soil. Speaking with Vanity Fair in December, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles admitted that if Trump "were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.” When speaking with the NYT, Trump declined answer questions about congressional approval, but said that he will provide additional details during an 11 a.m. ET press conference from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.

This is a developing story, and will be updated.