{"id":671353,"date":"2026-01-03T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671353\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:47:12","slug":"trump-calls-venezuela-strikes-a-brilliant-operation-as-captured-maduro-to-stand-trial-firstpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671353\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump calls Venezuela strikes a &#8216;brilliant operation&#8217; as &#8216;Captured&#8217; Maduro to stand trial \u2013 Firstpost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Venezuelan government blamed the United States administration led by President Donald Trump for the massive explosions that rocked the capital, Caracas, in the early hours of Saturday, following which a national emergency was declared.<\/p>\n<p>US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York following US airstrikes in Caracas.<br \/>\nMaduro faces charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons against the United States, Bondi said.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela-US conflict LIVE: US indicts Maduro and wife on multiple charges in New York, says US Attorney General<\/p>\n<p>Amid President Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on drug cartels, tensions between Venezuela and the US appeared to escalate after the Venezuelan government blamed Washington for a series of powerful explosions that rocked the capital, Caracas, in the early hours of Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>While official confirmation that the explosions were caused by US airstrikes was still awaited, a CBS reporter said on X that President Trump had ordered strikes on targets inside Venezuela, including military facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela explosions | Key points<\/p>\n<p>Multiple explosions and what were described as sounds of low-flying aircraft were heard early Saturday in Caracas and several other areas.<\/p>\n<p>Loud blasts accompanied by noises resembling aircraft flyovers were reported around 2 am (0600 GMT) in the capital, AFP reported, citing its journalist.<\/p>\n<p>Unverified visuals circulated on social media, purportedly showing the moment explosions struck Caracas. One video claimed to show large blasts at Higuerote Airport, about 87 km east of the capital.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement by the Venezuelan government, the attacks occurred in Caracas as well as in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.<\/p>\n<p>Following the incidents, President Nicolas Maduro declared a national emergency and called on social and political forces to \u201cactivate mobilisation plans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Venezuelan government blamed the United States administration led by President Donald Trump for the massive explosions that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[204355,204350,204353,204352,49,978,204351,659,204348,204354,204349],"class_list":{"0":"post-671353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-caracas-airport-explosion","9":"tag-caracas-blasts","10":"tag-nicolas-maduro-national-emergency","11":"tag-trump-drug-cartel-crackdown","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-airstrikes-venezuela","15":"tag-usa","16":"tag-venezuela-explosions","17":"tag-venezuela-military-strikes","18":"tag-venezuela-us-tensions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115831717365352835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}