Updated on January 4, 2025, at 4:10 pm EST
The US attack on Venezuela early Saturday morning that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife killed at least 80 people, including military personnel and civilians, The New York Times has reported, citing an unnamed senior Venezuelan official.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez had said that the US attack killed civilians and military personnel, but didn’t give a number. The Venezuelan official speaking to the Times didn’t provide a breakdown of the number of civilians and military personnel killed.
According to the Times report, at least one US airstrike hit a civilian target, a three-story apartment building in Catia La Mar, a coastal area west of the Caracas airport, knocking out an exterior wall and killing an 80-year-old woman named Rosa Gonzalez. Another woman was severely injured by the strike, which destroyed several apartments, and she is in critical condition.
President Trump suggested in an interview on Saturday morning that there were some injuries among US troops during the attack. So far, there’s been no official word from the US military on casualties. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press conference that a US helicopter was hit during the operation but was able to fly out of Caracas.
Caine said the US assault involved more than 150 aircraft and strikes on Venezuelan military facilities and air defenses to “ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area” where they captured Maduro. He said that US intelligence assets had been watching the movement of Maduro and that the operation was planned for months amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean and threats of war.
Trump said at the press conference that the US was able to cut most of the power to the Venezuelan capital city. “The lights of Caracas were largely turned off, due to a certain expertise that we have,” he said.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted by the US government over allegations of drug trafficking and claims that they violated US gun laws, and they have been flown to New York to face charges.
“If this action were constitutionally sound, the Attorney General wouldn’t be tweeting that they’ve arrested the President of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on X.
While drugs were used as the pretext for the attack, Trump has said the US now plans to “run” Venezuela until a government acceptable to the US is installed and to ensure that American companies get access to Venezuela’s oil. Trump made clear that he’s considering sending troops into Venezuela as part of an occupation force, claiming that he’s “not afraid of boots on the ground.”
Trump has also claimed that the US was speaking with Rodriguez and that the Venezuelan vice president was willing to work with the US, though she strongly condemned the US invasion and has called for Maduro to be released. Rodriguez also said that Venezuela “will never again be a colony of any empire.”
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has ordered Rodriguez to assume the duties as the acting president of Venezuela, saying she will “assume and exercise, as acting president, all the powers, duties, and faculties inherent to the office of president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation.”
While Maduro was removed, his government remains intact, and Trump has threatened that he’s willing to launch a “second wave” of attacks if necessary.
