Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who ruled with an iron fist for about 13 years, were arrested by the U.S. military and extradited to the United States. The U.S. military escorted the presidential couple to New York over more than 15 hours, deploying helicopters and Air Force aircraft.
According to the U.S. the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and foreign media including the New York Times (NYT) and the Associated Press, the U.S. military carried out Operation absolute resolve and infiltrated Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, at 2:01 a.m. on the 3rd (local time), arresting President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The U.S. special forces deployed for the operation put the arrested presidential couple on a helicopter and at 3:29 a.m. handed them over to the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea.
The presidential couple moved to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, transferred to a U.S. government aircraft prepared in advance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and flew to Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York. They arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York at about 5:25 p.m.
The Associated Press said, "A detained individual, presumed to be President Maduro, was escorted off the plane," and noted, "The person carefully descended one step at a time and was then escorted across the runway surrounded by at least 30 federal agents."
The presidential couple took a helicopter again from Stewart Air National Guard Base and arrived in Manhattan at about 7 p.m. Local media said the U.S. government took them to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New York field division. They were incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
President Maduro is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court next week on charges including conspiring to commit narcoterrorism.
In March 2020, during the first Trump administration, the United States indicted President Maduro on charges including drug trafficking and money laundering. The U.S. Department of Justice additionally indicted him that day on charges of conspiring to commit narcoterrorism, cocaine smuggling, and weapons offenses.