After Mr. Trump returned to power in early 2025, his immediate foreign policy priority was Venezuela and South America more broadly. Mr. Trump said he had authorised the CIA to carry out a clandestine operation inside Venezuela and warned that Mr. Maduro’s “time is up”. Mr. Trump acknowledged the strikes in a social media post and claimed that Mr. Maduro and his wife “were captured and flown out of the country”. In a 2023 speech (when he was out of power), Mr. Trump said: “When I left [in 2021, after the first term], Venezuela was ready to collapse. Now, with the strike on Venezuela and the claimed capture of Mr. Maduro, Mr. Trump appears close to achieving his objective.

Source: The Hindu January 03, 2026 16:12 UTC