The US has reportedly captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to stand trial inside the country, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The Venezuelan government has asked for proof of life and the whereabouts of Maduro and his First Lady, Cilia Flores. The country’s vice president said that the large-scale military attacks on the capital, Caracas have killed officials, military personnel, and civilians in the country.
Maduro has been called a “narco-terrorist” and a “criminal” by the Trump administration.
The government has looked to prosecute him through the US legal system.
He also had a $50 million bounty on his head as of August 2025 after Trump took office for the second term.
In 2020, during Trump's first term, Madura was charged in the Southern District of New York for “narco-terrorism” and for trying to import cocaine, and on related charges.
Last month, Marco Rubio said that the the Maduro regime being a narco-terrorist organisation is not on the “basis of political talk or speculation.”
Trump said in a social media post early Saturday that Maduro had been captured “in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement” and promised more details later in the day.
Republican US Senator Mike Lee of Utah said he spoke with Rubio on Saturday morning. Rubio reportedly told him that “Nicolas Maduro has been arrested by US personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant,” reported CNN.
🚨Nicolas Maduro should’ve studied history before waving a sword at President Trump.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) January 3, 2026
January 3, 1990 we captured Panama’s narcotrafficking dictator Manuel Noriega.
January 3, 2026 we captured #Venezuela’s narcoterrorist dictator Nicolas Maduro. pic.twitter.com/rjUTTRs8xw
The capture of Maduro is similar to that of the arrest of late Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1990, exactly 35 years ago. President George H.W. Bush had ordered his arrest and the US military to invade Panama in 1989. He was convicted in the US and spent 20 years in an American prison before he was sent to France to serve a money laundering sentence. He was then sent to Panama again, where he was imprisoned for murder and other charges. Noriega died in Panama in 2017.
As for Venezuela, the government is currently in doubt.
According to the constitution, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is in line to power. The opposition government, however, says that the exiled politician Edmundo Gonzalez is the rightful leader.
The country could also be subject to a military takeover by the current Defence minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who has spoken after the US strikes and called for the country to resist the US “invasion” and the “the greatest outrage the country has suffered.”
