By REGINA GARCIA CANO and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN<\/p>\n
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 The United States hit Venezuela with a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d early Saturday and said its president had been captured and flown out of the country after months of intense pressure<\/a> on Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government \u2014 an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.<\/p>\n The legal authority for the strike \u2014 and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand \u2014 was not immediately clear. The stunning, lightning-fast American military action, which plucked a nation\u2019s sitting leader from office, echoed the U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 \u2014 exactly 36 years ago Saturday.<\/p>\n Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital, and Maduro\u2019s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an \u201cimperialist attack\u201d and urging citizens to take to the streets.<\/p>\n With Maduro\u2019s whereabouts not known, the vice president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, would take power under Venezuelan law. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not know the whereabouts of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe demand proof of life.\u201d<\/p>\n Maduro, Trump said, \u201chas been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.\u201d He set a news conference for later Saturday morning.<\/p>\n The attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions \u2014 at least seven blasts \u2014 sent people rushing into the streets<\/a>, while others took to social media to report what they\u2019d seen and heard. It was not known if there were any deaths or injuries on either side or if more actions lay ahead, though Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out \u201csuccessfully.\u201d <\/p>\n Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed him on the strike and said that Maduro \u201chas been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to queries on where Maduro and his wife were being flown to. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n Maduro last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.<\/p>\n The strike came after the Trump administration spent months increasing the pressure on Maduro, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike<\/a> at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels \u2014 the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.<\/p>\n As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115, according to the Trump administration. Trump said that the U.S. is engaged in an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels<\/a> and has justified the boat strikes<\/a> as a necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S.<\/p>\n