Caracas 

During the early hours of Saturday January 3, an official statement from the White House, signed by President Trump, confirmed that the US had captured both President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and taken them out of Venezuela.

At 2 a.m. sharp, thunderous sounds echoed through the capital city, part of what Trump called today “an assault not seen since World War Two… one of the most stunning displays of military might and competence in American history.” It was certainly an attack unlike anything ever seen in Venezuela. Within two hours, all of Caracas looked like a massive fireball, communications were down and areas were without power.

The US deployed fighter jets in strategic areas: they bombed and destroyed the Port of La Guaira (Venezuela’s most important port), as well as El Cuartel de la Montaña, a security and military base created by Hugo Chávez on top of a mountain, as well as various military and intelligence installations. The headquarters of the DGCIM – Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence – burned down.

The Maduro regime issued a lengthy official statement, attributing the attack to the United States, saying, “The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the nation’s political independence. They will not succeed.”

Military sources told me that the Army and National Guard control access routes to major cities. The attack took Venezuelan authorities and military forces completely by surprise, and they were unable to repel the attacks, which ceased after almost two hours. However, airspace over Caracas remains filled with American fighter jets. AH-1Z helicopters struck against military and intelligence targets, including airports, barracks, the Federal Legislative Palace and Fort Tiuna, the country’s largest military base. Many areas of Caracas were without power, including the poorest neighborhoods and the Higuerote Military Base, home to all of Venezuela’s war helicopters, which the US attacks destroyed.

This puts the Venezuelan military in a truly precarious position. Only one major objective remains, where the battle will be fierce: the city of Maracay.

A high-ranking military officer told me around 3 a.m. today that all troops have been assembled and are now confined to their barracks to prepare for a potential ground engagement, as well as to secure the Libertador Air Base in Maracay.

The military is blocking access to all major cities, with main avenues closed off by tanks and military vehicles. Unofficially, this officer told me that while the threat was present, Maduro foolishly hadn’t expected it to escalate, as he had called for dialogue with Trump the previous day, offering cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and even facilitating oil negotiations.

The US has been laying the groundwork for the strike for nearly a month. On December 9, an American MQ-4C Triton drone (for aerial, land and sea monitoring and surveillance) was detected days later, another similar drone crossed the skies over Maracay.

On December 19, there was an explosion in the La Goajira region, also in Zulia state. They found fragments of an American missile. At midnight on December 24, a massive explosion occurred at a chemical plant in Zulia state, a major oil-producing region.

Then, on the night of December 29, there was another explosion in a warehouse at the racetrack in the city of Valencia, Carabobo state. Sources confirm the existence of a clandestine fentanyl laboratory there.

“We didn’t see this coming, since President Maduro was counting on the possibility of dialogue,” said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

So why mobilize such a force against a country where the militias seem like something out of an absurdist comedy, where everything is in disarray, and where Maduro looks like a clown who can’t find his way back to the circus? The answer: the real threat was never Maduro. It’s everything behind him that Hugo Chávez began to build through his alliances with Iran, Syria, Russia and China. This is the real enemy, a very dangerous one.

Despite Trump saying “we are going to run the country” until there can be a judicious transfer of power, a “proper transition,” the US has yet to establish complete control.

Maracay is the capital of Aragua state in the heart of Venezuela. Fewer than half a million people live in these valleys along the Venezuelan coast. But strategically, it’s a key city for the Venezuelan military.

Most importantly, it’s home to the Libertador Air Base, the headquarters of Venezuela’s elite fighter jets as well as a large array of dangerous, modern combat aircraft. The base also houses the 83-I UAV Squadron, which operates Iranian-made reconnaissance and attack drones, assembled locally. Last year, between November 28 and 30, the base hosted the Venezuela 2025 Industrial Aeronautics Expo, where aerial displays featuring these operational systems were held. To date, the drone factory remains shrouded in secrecy, although sources within the institution have confirmed to me that Iranian and Russian specialists operate it.

And all of this is the result of that first meeting between Iran and Venezuela in 2005, which established the alliance. Hezbollah’s presence is confirmed, and its cells are expanding throughout almost the entire country. More than 10,000 soldiers are on the ground, ready for anything. If the US has to enact a “much bigger wave” against Venezuela, as Trump says, this will be the target.

Second, but no less important, this area houses the central base of the terrorist organization Tren de Aragua, which Trump has often denounced. Everyone knows where it’s located: inside Tocorón prison, controlled by narco-terrorists and leaders of all organized crime in Venezuela, who have managed to create their own networks outside of Venezuela. They’ve been involved with Black Lives Matter, riots in the United States and international crimes.

Tocorón prison is like stepping into the Twilight Zone: there are restaurants, spas, swimming pools and tunnels for the leaders to come and go – all under the protection of the regime. Nobody in this country messes with Tren de Aragua. These men, supported by the drug trafficking of the Cartel of the Suns, Hezbollah, Colombian guerrillas and the Chavista regime, are the true masters of evil and power.

In the initial attack, Donald Trump has essentially eliminated all military components in Caracas and taken Maduro.

However, the command center for drug trafficking and organized crime, the base of drones capable of engaging in combat and the stronghold of Hezbollah leaders in Maracay, remain untouched. This is the region that could decide the end of more than a quarter-century of dictatorship.

Until last night, the daily life of a Venezuelan largely consisted of trying to find food for the day and being careful not to get stopped by police and/or military personnel, or people in plain-clothes who work for the government and operate with impunity. They’ll take your phone and search to see if you’re criticizing the government, and if so, that’s it, you’ll disappear. This has happened to many fellow journalists. They simply vanished. The regime even created an app called Venapp, so you can become a snitch and send information on anyone who supposedly threatens the government. You can’t trust anyone, not even your family. That’s why, for Venezuelans, it was better to get drunk, buy things with money sent by relatives abroad and, for some, hold onto the hope that the regime would end someday.

That day seems to have finally arrived in the early hours of this morning, in a way few could have imagined. Not even Maduro himself, who just a couple of days ago was dancing and cracking jokes on national television.

But we’re only seeing all this through Instagram and TikTok, since the Venezuelan state seized all media outlets years ago. Every day, without exception, Maduro addressed the nation, repeating the same thing: everything is fine. So very few Venezuelans actually watched or listened to the national media. Their favorite distraction was watching Turkish and Korean soap operas, since the Venezuelan telenovela industry, once one of the most important in the world, has disappeared.

Now, for the first time in decades, Venezuelans have woken up to an unfamiliar country. The places where they used to go for breakfast empanadas are closed, as are markets and bakeries. This morning, a different Venezuela dawned, one for which most of us are unprepared. The parties, the drinking and the games are over. Welcome to a new reality.

At 5 a.m., the American planes disappeared, as did several key figures in the Chavista regime. Rumors abound of dead Chavista leaders. For now, only one fact is clear: the entire military force in Caracas is inactive, destroyed. It only took a few hours to make it happen. The “Donroe Doctrine” is now in place. And Nicolás Maduro has fallen.