Operation Absolute Resolve: bombing Venezuela and seizing its head of state

Editor's note: official records document the strikes and capture without congressional authorization, and experts dispute their legality, but no court or official finding establishes them as unlawful.

Beginning about 2 a.m. on January 3, 2026, U.S. forces bombed infrastructure across northern Venezuela to suppress air defenses while an apprehension force struck Maduro's compound in Caracas. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were flown to New York and arraigned on narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and weapons charges, pleading not guilty on January 5. Gen. Dan Caine said the operation, named Absolute Resolve, followed months of planning, with a CIA team inside Venezuela since August tracking Maduro's movements and elite troops rehearsing against a replica of his compound. Seven U.S. service members were injured. The New York Times reported the overall death toll had risen to about eighty, citing a senior Venezuelan official; Cuba said thirty-two of its citizens were killed. The operation followed months of lethal strikes on alleged drug vessels documented at DEF-09.

The administration said no authorization was required. Rubio told ABC that 'this was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation,' and that Maduro had been arrested by FBI agents, read his rights, and removed from the country. Republicans defended the action as within the president's Article II powers; Sen. Mike Lee said it likely fell under the authority to protect against actual or imminent attack. Congressional Research Service records that both chambers considered but did not approve War Powers resolutions directing the president to terminate unauthorized hostilities, and that the Senate voted on January 8 to advance one such measure. Members were briefed in closed session after the fact. Several Democratic senators said they had been misled: Sen. Andy Kim wrote that Rubio and Hegseth 'looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change,' and that 'we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.'

The case for the operation is not trivial and belongs in the record. Maduro was indicted in the United States in 2020 on drug charges; he retained power in January 2025 despite election results indicating he had lost to Edmundo Gonzalez; and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, along with several Latin American and European leaders, welcomed his removal. But the Congressional Research Service notes that experts have disputed the administration's claims about the existence of a non-international armed conflict, Maduro's direction of the Tren de Aragua gang, and the stolen oil. The UN Secretary-General said the action set a 'dangerous precedent.' Trump said afterward that the United States would 'run' Venezuela for the foreseeable future and take control of its oil industry, and Rep. Kevin Mullin alleged that the administration 'tipped off the oil companies before notifying elected leaders,' an allegation that remains unverified.