US attacks Venezuela and captures Nicolás Maduro

 
Nicolas Maduro
(Picture from his ‘X’ page)

COGwrite

The United States launched an attack against the Maduro regime and he and his wife reportedly were captured:

US captures Venezuela’s leader and his wife in a stunning operation and plans to prosecute them

January 3, 2026

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in a stunning military operation early Saturday that plucked a sitting leader from office — the culmination of months of escalating Trump administration pressure on the oil-rich South American nation.

Maduro and his wife, taken overnight from their home on a military base, were aboard a U.S. warship on their way to New York, where they were to face criminal charges. The U.S. is now evaluating next steps for Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Saturday on Fox News.

“We’ll be involved in it very much,” he said. “We can’t take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left.” …

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, accusing them of a role in narco-terrorism conspiracy.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.” Trump said the couple were aboard the U.S. warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York.

https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-explosions-caracas-ca712a67aaefc30b1831f5bf0b50665e

January 3, 2026

• President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the Country” early Saturday morning, confirming a “large scale strike” by the U.S. that drew quick condemnation and concern from across the globe.
• The U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture Maduro, officials told CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/venezuela-us-military-strikes-maduro-trump/

STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP pic.twitter.com/nHDqtsqRFh

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 3, 2026

Nicolás Maduro Moros was a former union leader. He has functioned as the president of Venezuela since 2013. Wikipedia has the following about him:

Maduro is widely considered to be leading an authoritarian government characterized by electoral fraud, human rights abuses, corruption, and severe economic hardship. Between 2013 and 2023, Venezuela dropped 42 places in the Press Freedom Index.^[19] According to estimations by the United Nations (UN) and Human Rights Watch, under Maduro’s administration, more than 20,000 people have been subject to extrajudicial killings and seven million Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country.^[20][21][22] The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela concluded that the country’s justice system independence has declined; the mission also identified frequent due process violations, including political external interference and the admission of evidence through torture has been alleged.^[23][24][25] Many Venezuelan television channels are controlled by the state, and information unfavourable to the government is not covered completely.^[26] In 2018, a board designated by the Organization of American States (OAS) alleged that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela during Maduro’s presidency.^[27] In 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced the opening of an investigation regarding the situation in the country.^[28] Maduro denies all allegations of misconduct and argues the United States has conspired against Venezuela to manufacture a crisis as a means of enabling them to make the case for regime change. (Nicolas Maduro. Wikipedia, accessed 01/03/26)

Well, it appears that a regime change is now taking place. It also appears, to me at least, that Donald Trump is indirectly sending a warning to Iran.

That said, it was widely believed that Nicolás Maduro did not win the 2024 presidential election in Venezuela, yet his supporters changed the results for him to cling to power. Here is some of what was posted at COGwriter.com, related to that back then:

Venezuelan opposition says it has proof its candidate defeated President Maduro in disputed election

July 30, 2024

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — As thousands of people demonstrated across Venezuela, opposition candidate Edmundo González announced Monday that his campaign has the proof it needs to show he won the country’s disputed election in which electoral authorities named President Nicolás Maduro the victor.

González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters they have obtained more than 70% of tally sheets from Sunday’s election, and they show González with more than double Maduro’s votes. Both called on people, some of whom protested in the hours after Maduro was declared winner, to remain calm and invited them to gather peacefully at 11 a.m. Tuesday to celebrate the results.

“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” González said as dozens of supporters cheered outside campaign headquarters in the capital, Caracas. “We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our categorical and mathematically irreversible victory.” https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-presidential-election-maduro-machado-edmundo-results-acee6c8cd3a8fc88086c2dd71963b759

While the following prophecies are NOT specific to Nicolás Maduro, they came to mind after hearing of his capture:

3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.  (2 Peter 2:3)

3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Nicolás Maduro, like many politicians, used covetous deceptive words. They were not good for Venezuela, nor for him.

Venezuela is a resource-rich country. It may currently have the greatest amount of oil reserves of any country, and it is also a significant producer of gold.

Venezuela had been one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, but now is one of the poorest.

Here is something else I posted here in the Summer of 2024:

While all human governments tend to mismanage resources and their economies, Venezuela has been more extreme that way than many.

That being said, as I have written before, ultimately, I believe that Venezuela will change and some of those who left that nation for other lands will return.

Venezuela, also, will likely have some prosperity with trade from the rising Babylonian Beast power, but that will be temporal.

Venezuela, like the rest of the world, needs repentance and the Kingdom of God.

And yes, even with what looks to be a regime change, Venezuela, like the rest of the world, needs repentance and the Kingdom of God.