In the early hours of January 3, 2026, Caracas was shaken by a series of powerful explosions linked to a dramatic escalation in the long-standing tensions between the United States and Venezuela, with U.S. forces reportedly targeting Fuerte Tiuna, the sprawling military complex in Venezuela’s capital, as part of a military operation that U.S. officials claim resulted in Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro being captured by elite U.S. special operations forces — reportedly Delta Force — and removed from the country. Former U.S. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to assert that a “large-scale strike” had successfully captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, before they were flown out of Venezuela, a claim that is central to the latest accounts of US strikes on Fuerte Tiuna Caracas but has not been independently verified by Venezuelan authorities or independent international observers.
Eyewitness reports and media outlets chronicle at least seven loud detonations around 2 a.m. local time, with low-flying aircraft and visible smoke rising over areas in and around Fuerte Tiuna and other military sites in Caracas, triggering widespread alarm among residents and prompting swift government response. The explosions appeared to strike both military infrastructure and communications installations, intensifying already heightened regional tensions. Wikipedia While the Delta Force involvement — the U.S. Army’s top special mission unit known for high-profile counterterrorism missions — is cited by sources including U.S. media reporting on official accounts, independent and verifiable documentation confirming the unit’s role or Maduro’s physical custody remains pending, as Venezuelan officials demand immediate proof of life and clarity on the whereabouts of the president and first lady.
The operation, which according to official U.S. commentary was engineered to detain Maduro on charges linked to earlier U.S. indictments for drug trafficking and alleged criminal activity, represents an unprecedented kinetic action inside Venezuelan territory and marks a sharp departure from the indirect and economic pressures traditionally used in U.S.-Venezuela relations. According to published reports summarizing open-source information about the strikes, the assault was part of an escalation known among some analysts as Operation Southern Spear, involving coordinated air and special operations elements aiming to neutralize what U.S. officials have described as destabilizing narcotics networks and an illegitimate regime.
Despite the boldness of the claims, Venezuelan government sources have flatly denied confirming the U.S. assertions, with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stating that neither Maduro nor Flores’s locations are known to state authorities and urging international bodies to demand “proof of life.” Caracas has condemned the strikes as a flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, depicting the U.S. action as an act of military aggression that endangers Venezuela’s sovereignty and regional stability. thediplomatinspain.com The Venezuelan government has also declared a state of emergency, mobilized military forces, and called on all segments of society to resist the perceived foreign intervention, while power outages and disruptions in communication networks in parts of Caracas added to public confusion in the immediate aftermath of the explosions.
Confirming the exact sequence of events — and whether Maduro was indeed captured by Delta Force operatives at Fuerte Tiuna — is complicated by the absence of independent ground reporting and the highly polarized nature of the incident’s coverage. While U.S. government figures, echoed by some international media outlets, have stated that Maduro is in U.S. custody and faces extradition for prosecution, no verified visual confirmation or third-party confirmation has yet emerged to substantiate these assertions in real time. These gaps in verification have fueled conflicting narratives: one in which a significant special operations raid successfully extracted Venezuela’s head of state, and another in which the status of Maduro remains officially unconfirmed amid the chaos of an unfolding geopolitical crisis.
The U.S. strike and the subsequent claim of Maduro’s capture have sparked immediate and widespread international reaction. Regional governments have expressed varying degrees of concern, with some decrying the act as a dangerous precedent for military intervention in sovereign states and others calling for de-escalation and diplomatic engagement to prevent further conflict. Global powers allied with Venezuela have sharply criticized the action, framing it as imperial overreach, while supporters of the operation argue that decisive measures are necessary to dismantle entrenched criminal networks and address longstanding accusations against the Venezuelan leadership.
As the world watches for more concrete information, the events of January 3, 2026 — particularly the explosions in Caracas and the claim that Delta Force operatives captured Nicolás Maduro at Fuerte Tiuna — have already reshaped the geopolitical landscape in the Western Hemisphere. The coming hours and days are expected to be critical in clarifying whether the dramatic claims of capture will be backed by independently verifiable evidence or whether they will remain contested assertions in what could be one of the most consequential international confrontations of the decade.
