US attacks Venezuela on the ground and claims to have arrested Maduro

In an attack of unprecedented proportions in Latin America, the United States bombed several cities in Venezuela since the early hours of this Saturday (3). Civilian and military targets were hit in the capital Caracas, as well as in the regions of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira. In the morning, US President Donald Trump claimed to have captured and removed the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, and the first lady, Cilia Flores, from the country, “by air”.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, declared that the government has no information about the location of the presidential couple and demanded Maduro’s “proof of life” from the White House. The South American country’s Defense Minister, General Vladimir Padrino López, took to social media and TV Telesur to denounce the attack.

Both the offensive and the arrests violate international laws and were denounced by heads of state such as Miguel Díaz-Canel, from Cuba, and Gustavo Petro, from Colombia. Russia, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it was “deeply concerned” about the “act of armed aggression” and called for “efforts to find a way out through dialogue”.

The Maduro government also released a statement in which it “rejects, repudiates and denounces to the international community the very serious military aggression perpetrated” by the United States. “This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially its articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of States and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at serious risk”, states Venezuela.

The statement also rejects the pretexts used by Trump to legitimize the North American invasion. According to the document, “the objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, in particular its oil and minerals, trying to break the Nation’s political independence by force. They will not succeed.”

Now under a “state of External Commotion throughout the national territory”, Venezuela is seeking a popular reaction, even considering the hypothesis of armed struggle. In defense of the homeland, the Venezuelan government called on the “people to take to the streets”, mobilizing “all the country’s social and political forces to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their National Bolivarian Armed Force, in perfect popular-military-police fusion, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace.”

Trump informed that, at 1 pm (Brasília time), he will hold a press conference to detail the invasion of Venezuela. It is not clear whether the US president requested authorization from Congress, as provided for in the US Constitution. According to the CBS News network, teams from Delta Force – the elite troops of the US army – were responsible for Maduro’s capture.