News blog about the military operation in Venezuela
Nobel Prize winner Machado comments on Maduro’s successor
Updated on January 3, 2026 – 5:00 p.mReading time: 9 minutes
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The Venezuelan capital Caracas was rocked by massive explosions on Saturday morning. All developments in the news blog.
After the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US special forces, Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado is calling for opposition politician Edmundo González Urrutia to be appointed as his successor. He won the presidential election a year and a half ago and should now take up his constitutional office immediately, according to a statement from Machado published on X.
According to US President Donald Trump, Venezuela’s head of state, Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by US elite units, is on his way to New York. Maduro is on the warship Iwo Jima with his wife Cilia Flores, Trump said in an interview with the US television channel Fox News.
Trump also said he had asked Maduro to surrender a week ago. “I said you have to give up. You have to surrender.” They spoke on the phone about a week ago. However, Maduro refused.
According to US Attorney General Bondi, Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York. They are accused of crimes related to drug trafficking, as she announced on X. Specifically, Maduro is accused of, among other things, “conspiracy to commit drug terrorism” and “conspiracy to import cocaine.” He is also accused of possessing machine guns and explosives.
According to US President Donald Trump, President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured during a US military operation in Venezuela, will not be succeeded by a representative from his government. He will not allow anyone to “continue where they left off,” Trump told US broadcaster Fox News in a telephone interview, referring to Maduro. The Venezuelan head of state was captured in a kind of “fortress” and should be brought to New York.
Trump said he watched Maduro’s capture by the US military live. It was like a “television show”. “I watched, literally like I was watching a TV show,” Trump said, adding, “And if you saw the pace, the violence.”
After the US attack on Venezuela and the capture of authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, the government in Caracas has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The attack constitutes a violation of the UN Charter and endangers peace in the region and around the world, said a letter from the Foreign Ministry to Somalia’s permanent representative to the United Nations. The UN Security Council should condemn the aggression and demand an end to the attacks.
