Elaina Batista Asst. Social Media Editor
On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump gave the order to launch “Operation Absolute Resolve,” capturing the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro.
The operation included U.S. joint forces and special operations forces from multiple service branches. According to Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military also networked with multiple U.S. intelligence agencies. Maduro will face criminal court proceedings tied to a 2020 indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice on multiple federal charges, including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
The morning after “Operation Absolute Resolve” there was a press conference held by the president and several members of the Trump administration in Palm Beach, Florida. The press conference consisted of President Trump, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine. At the start of the conference Trump stated that there were no American casualties.
It was stated in a press conference that as early as August, the CIA quietly sent a small unit into Venezuela with the goal of providing “extraordinary insight” into Maduro’s movements, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The United States Department of State stated in a report that Maduro “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization composed of high-ranking Venezuelan officials.”
Within this same report it stated that while holding power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
In March 2020, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. Since then, the Southern District Court of New York has updated the indictment since the recent capture of Maduro. At the beginning of the indictment it states, “…the defendant, is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”
Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, has been recognized as the interim president of the country and describes her first phone call with President Trump as a positive one. Trump stated after a lengthy phone call that Rodriguez is a “terrific person,” adding that the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also been in touch with the acting president.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won the opposition primary by a wide margin in 2023, was anticipated to be elected president. Maduro’s reelection a year later was widely denounced as unconstitutional, and Machado was prohibited from contesting him. After the operation Trump backed Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, saying Machado was “not respected” enough to lead the country.
Maduro and his wife are awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison in Brooklyn. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein presided over the first court hearing on Jan. 5 in the federal courtroom in Manhattan.