How US troops captured Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro

Armed police officers arrive at the Metropolitan Detention facility in the Brooklyn borough of New York, where ousted president Nicolas Maduro is expected to be held, on January 3, 2026 in New York City. [AFP]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was in a New York jail Saturday, hours after American special forces seized and flew him out of his country — which Donald Trump said would come under effective US control.

The US president's announcement followed a lightning pre-dawn attack in which commandos grabbed Maduro and his wife while air strikes pounded sites in and around Caracas.