{"id":95994,"date":"2026-01-06T14:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tv.guardian.ng\/?p=95994"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:56:19","slug":"venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela Falls: Trump takes control of Caracas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"dailymotion-player\"><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/x1ee8e.js\" data-video=\"x9x6wo2\"><\/script><\/div><br><br><p>\nThe geopolitical map of South America was redrawn overnight. In a stunning pre-dawn raid dubbed &#8216;Operation Absolute Resolve,&#8217; U.S. Special Operations forces captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in the heart of Caracas. Both are now in federal custody on American soil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The extraction took less than 30 minutes. Following a wave of precision strikes on the La Carlota military airfield and Fuerte Tiuna, Maduro and Flores were whisked away to the USS Iwo Jima before being flown to New York City. They are currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Within hours of the capture, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed a sweeping superseding indictment from the Southern District of New York. The charges paint a picture of a nation transformed into a criminal enterprise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and Cilia Flores face four primary counts:<\/p>\n<p>Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy: Accusing them of partnering with groups like the FARC and the Sinaloa Cartel to use cocaine as a &#8216;weapon&#8217; against the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Cocaine Importation Conspiracy: Alleging the shipment of thousands of tons of narcotics.<\/p>\n<p>Possession of Machine Guns and Destructive Devices: Related to the military-grade weaponry used to protect their trafficking routes.<\/p>\n<p>Conspiracy to Possess Machine Guns: Specifically linked to their coordination with the &#8216;Cartel of the Suns&#8217; and the Tren de Aragua gang.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Flores is accused of leveraging state power to provide &#8216;law enforcement cover&#8217; for drug shipments and orchestrating the sale of diplomatic passports to known traffickers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>President Trump has confirmed that the United States will &#8216;run&#8217; Venezuela temporarily. He stated that the goal is to stabilize the country and oversee a &#8216;judicious transition&#8217; to new leadership.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the mission isn&#8217;t just judicial. Trump explicitly noted that U.S. oil companies would be &#8216;very strongly involved&#8217; in taking over the nationalized oil industry, which the administration claims was used to fund Maduro\u2019s &#8216;cocaine-fueled corruption.&#8217; Critics at the UN have already labeled the move a &#8216;crime of aggression,&#8217; while the administration argues it is an act of self-defense against narco-terrorism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez remains in Venezuela, denouncing the operation as a &#8216;kidnapping&#8217; and calling for a national uprising. However, reports suggest the Venezuelan military is in a state of &#8216;functional decapitation&#8217; following the precision strikes on their command centers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Maduro and Flores are scheduled for their first appearance in a Manhattan federal court for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll keep you updated as the story unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The geopolitical map of South America was redrawn overnight. In a stunning pre-dawn raid dubbed &#8216;Operation Absolute Resolve,&#8217; U.S. Special Operations forces captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in the heart of Caracas. Both are now in federal custody on American soil.&#8221; The extraction took less than 30 minutes. Following a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gam_disable_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2022,37964],"tags":[11990,975,3471],"class_list":["post-95994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gtv-exclusive","category-top-video","tag-caracas","tag-trump","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Venezuela Falls: Trump takes control of Caracas - GuardianTV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a stunning pre-dawn raid dubbed &#039;Operation Absolute Resolve,&#039; U.S. Special Operations forces captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in the heart of Caracas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Venezuela Falls: Trump takes control of Caracas - GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a stunning pre-dawn raid dubbed &#039;Operation Absolute Resolve,&#039; U.S. Special Operations forces captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in the heart of Caracas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T14:55:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T14:56:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/tv.guardian.ng\/2026\/01\/report__thumbnail_venezuela_falls.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abiodun Ogundairo\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a7ea396ab9bae73d4845496dbad885f1\"},\"headline\":\"Venezuela Falls: Trump takes control of Caracas\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-06T14:55:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-06T14:56:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gtvcdn.guardian.ng\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/report__thumbnail_venezuela_falls.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Caracas\",\"Trump\",\"Venezuela\"],\"articleSection\":[\"GTV Exclusive\",\"Top Video\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/venezuela-falls-trump-takes-control-of-caracas\\\/\",\"name\":\"Venezuela Falls: Trump takes control of Caracas - 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