Venezuela-US timeline: How Trump ramped up strain on Caracas earlier than airstrikes and Maduro seize | EUROtoday

The US authorities has launched a big scale assault on Venezuela and captured it’s president Nicolas Maduro.

Tensions have heightened between the 2 nations in current months, with US president Donald Trump threatening to start out ordering strikes on targets on Venezuelan soil.

The strikes comply with a number of assaults on boats the US declare are smuggling narcotics for drug cartels, and a construct up of a fleet of warships close to Venezuela, together with the biggest US plane provider.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has insisted the actual goal of the US army operations is to pressure him from workplace and take management of Venezuela’s huge oil reserves and uncommon earth mineral deposits.

More than 100 individuals have been killed in US army strikes concentrating on small vessels working within the Caribbean because the marketing campaign started in 2025.

Here is a timeline of the US army actions, considerations amongst some lawmakers and the response in Venezuela:

January 2025

Trump indicators an government order that paves the way in which for prison organisations and drug cartels to be named “foreign terrorist organizations.” They embrace Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan road gang.

The US intelligence group has disputed Trump’s central declare that Maduro’s administration is working with Tren de Aragua and orchestrating drug trafficking and unlawful immigration into the US.

February 2025

The Trump administration formally designates eight Latin American crime organisations as international terrorist organisations.

The label is often reserved for teams like al-Qaida or the Islamic State that use violence for political ends — not for profit-focused crime rings.

August 2025

The US army deploys three guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela.

The naval pressure within the Caribbean grows inside weeks to incorporate three amphibious assault ships and different vessels, carrying about 6,000 sailors and Marines and a wide range of plane.

The US deploys F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico in September, whereas a Navy submarine carrying cruise missiles operates off South America.

September 2025

The US carries out its first strike towards what Trump says was a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by Tren de Aragua.

Trump says all 11 individuals on the boat had been killed and posts a brief video clip of a small vessel showing to blow up in flames.

Two weeks later, the US army carries out its second strike towards an alleged drug boat, killing three individuals.

Asked what proof the US has that the vessel was carrying medicine, Trump informed reporters that large baggage of cocaine and fentanyl had been spattered all around the ocean. However, pictures of what Trump described weren’t launched by the army or the White House.

Days later, Trump mentioned the US army carried out its third deadly strike towards an alleged drug-smuggling vessel. The president says the assault killed three individuals and intelligence “confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics.”

Several senators and human rights teams proceed to query the legality of the strikes, describing them as a possible overreach of government authority.

October 2025

On October 2, Trump declares drug cartels to be illegal combatants and says the US is now in an “armed conflict” with them, in response to a Trump administration memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he ordered a fourth strike on a small boat he accuses of carrying medicine. He says 4 males had been killed however gives no particulars on who they had been or what group they belonged to.

On October 8 Senate Republicans vote down laws that might have required the president to hunt authorization from Congress earlier than additional army strikes.

Trump declares the fifth strike towards a small boat accused of carrying medicine on October 14, saying it killed six individuals. The president says intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics on a recognized drug-trafficking route.

On October 15 Trump confirms he has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and says he’s weighing finishing up land operations within the nation. He declines to say whether or not the CIA has authority to take motion towards Maduro.

A day later, Trump says the US struck a sixth suspected drug-carrying vessel within the Caribbean, killing two individuals and leaving two survivors who had been on the semi-submersible craft.

On October 17, the US army assaults a seventh vessel that Hegseth says was carrying “substantial amounts of narcotics” and related to a Colombian insurgent group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Three persons are killed.

Hegseth says the US army launched its eighth strike towards an alleged drug-carrying vessel on October 21, killing two individuals within the japanese Pacific.

The assault marks an enlargement of the army’s concentrating on space to the waters off South America the place a lot of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.

A day later, Hegseth declares the ninth strike, one other within the japanese Pacific, saying three males are killed.

On October 24, Hegseth orders the US army’s most superior plane provider, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the area in a major escalation of army firepower.

He says the army performed the tenth strike on a suspected drug-running boat, leaving six individuals lifeless. He says the vessel was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang.

On October 27, Hegseth says three extra strikes had been carried out within the japanese Pacific, killing 14 individuals and leaving one survivor.

Hegseth says Mexican authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the only survivor, who’s presumed lifeless after Mexico suspended its search after 4 days.

Hegseth says the US army carried out one other strike on a ship he mentioned was carrying medicine within the japanese Pacific, on October 29 killing all 4 individuals aboard within the 14th assault.

On October 31, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk requires an investigation into the strikes, in what gave the impression to be the primary such condemnation of its sort from a United Nations group.

November 2025

On November 1, Hegseth posts one other video as he declares the fifteenth recognized strike, saying the vessel within the Caribbean was operated by a US-designated terrorist group. He doesn’t title the group and says three individuals had been killed.

In the sixteenth recognized strike, Hegseth posts on social media that two individuals had been killed aboard a vessel within the japanese Pacific on November 4. The similar day, the Ford plane provider leaves the Mediterranean Sea on its strategy to the Caribbean.

On November 6, Hegseth declares the seventeenth recognized strike, which killed three individuals, and Senate Republicans vote to reject laws that might have restricted Trump’s capacity to order an assault on Venezuelan soil with out congressional authorization.

On November 9, the US army strikes two vessels within the japanese Pacific, killing six individuals, in response to an announcement from Hegseth the next day.

The twentieth recognized strike on a ship accused of transporting medicine kills 4 individuals within the Caribbean a day later, in response to a social media put up from the US army’s Southern Command.

On November 11, Venezuela’s authorities launches what it says is a “massive” mobilisation of troops and volunteers for 2 days of workouts prompted by the US army buildup.

On November 15, three persons are killed after the US army conducts its twenty first strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat within the japanese Pacific, earlier than the Ford arrives within the Caribbean, a significant second within the Trump administration’s present of pressure.

Trump then says the US “ may be having some discussions ” with Maduro and that “Venezuela would like to talk,” with out providing particulars.

December 2025

US Southern Command says there are round 15,000 personnel working within the space by December, within the largest army buildup within the area in generations.

On December 4, 4 persons are killed within the twenty second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat within the japanese Pacific, in response to a put up from Southern Command.

Trump referred to as the US buildup within the area “a massive armada, the biggest we’ve ever had” in a press convention and mentioned it could be “smart” for Maduro to step down.

In late December the army performed one other strike on an alleged drug-trafficking vessel within the japanese Pacific. The strike was the thirtieth such assault since September, and it brings the whole variety of recognized casualties to 107, in response to the Associated Press.

Trump additionally disclosed what might the primary recognized land strike in his marketing campaign. When requested about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump described a Christmas Eve assault on an alleged drug facility.

January 2026

In an interview filmed on New Year’s Eve and subsequently broadcast on Venezuelan state tv on New Year’s Day, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro prolonged an olive department to Trump, proposing “serious talks” on combating drug trafficking and providing American firms prepared entry to the nation’s oil.

Mr Maduro described Venezuela as a “brother country” to the United States and a pleasant authorities. He recalled that in their final dialog in November, Donald Trump had acknowledged his authority by addressing him as “Mr. President.”

However, within the early hours on January 3, the US lanched an assault on Venezuela and mentioned Maduro has been “captured”.

At least seven explosions and low-flying plane had been seen in Venezuela’s capital within the early hours of Saturday morning, because the Venezuelan authorities mentioned assaults happened on civilian and army installations in Caracas, Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.

In a Truth Social put up hours after the assault, the US president mentioned: “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.

Venezuela said it rejected “military aggression” by the US, and mentioned the purpose of the assault is to “take possession of Venezuelan oil and minerals”.