In a dramatic escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been “captured and flown out of the country” after what he described as a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela. Trump said Maduro and his wife were removed in an operation carried out “in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement,” and promised further details at a scheduled news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump posted the claim on Truth Social, writing that the operation had been “successfully carried out,” and later told The New York Times the mission was “brilliant,” praising the planning and personnel involved. U.S. officials quoted by CBS News identified members of Delta Force—the Pentagon’s premier special operations unit—as responsible for Maduro’s capture, saying the operation occurred in the early hours of Saturday. Delta Force previously led the 2019 raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Venezuela’s government rejected the U.S. account and declared a national emergency. In a video address, Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said Caracas would “resist the presence of foreign troops,” and accused U.S. forces of bombing residential areas. He pledged a “massive deployment of all land, air, naval, riverine and missile capabilities” to defend the nation.

Interior Minister Néstor Reverol and other Venezuelan officials also accused U.S. forces of using missiles and rockets fired from combat helicopters against civilian-populated neighborhoods. State television carried an audio broadcast from Vice President Delcy Rodríguez saying the government did not know the whereabouts of Maduro or his wife and demanding “proof of life.”

In Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau hailed what he called “a new dawn” for Venezuela, writing on X that “the tyrant is gone” and declaring Maduro would “finally” face justice for his alleged crimes.

International reactions were swift and mixed. Russia condemned what its foreign ministry described as an “act of armed aggression” by the United States and urged restraint and a return to dialogue to avoid further escalation. European capitals said they were monitoring the situation closely: Germany said it was “watching Venezuela with great concern” and had its embassy in Caracas on alert, while Italy activated a crisis unit and stressed attention to the country’s sizable Italian community—estimated by Italy’s ambassador to include around 160,000 people, many dual nationals.

Details remain contested and sparse. U.S. officials, the White House and the Pentagon have not released full operational accounts or independent confirmation of Maduro’s capture at the time of the announcements; Venezuelan authorities insist their president’s whereabouts are unknown and that the country has been the target of U.S. military aggression.

The unfolding crisis raises immediate questions about regional stability, the risk of wider military confrontation, and the fate of Venezuelan institutions and civilians amid competing claims of victory and violation. International actors and diplomatic missions are mobilizing to assess the situation and protect their citizens, even as the principal parties present sharply divergent narratives about what occurred and who controls Venezuelan territory.