The crisis in Venezuela has entered a volatile new phase following the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro, with President Donald Trump issuing a direct threat to the country’s Interim President, Delcy Rodríguez. In a Sunday interview with The Atlantic, Trump warned that Rodríguez would pay a “bigger price than Maduro” if she continues her “defiant rejection” of the American intervention, signaling that the U.S. decapitation strategy may extend to the remaining Chavista leadership if they do not capitulate.
The ultimatum comes as the U.S. prepares to install an interim administration to “run the country” and manage its vast oil reserves. However, the path to this point was reportedly paved by a diplomatic failure. New reports from The New York Times reveal that the U.S. had offered Maduro a secret deal to go into exile in Turkey as recently as December 23. The Venezuelan leader reportedly “angrily rejected” the offer, a decision that U.S. officials say directly triggered the authorization for the high-risk Delta Force raid that pulled him from his bed on Saturday.
Details of that operation underscore the depth of U.S. intelligence penetration. It has now been confirmed that a covert CIA team had infiltrated Caracas in August 2025, utilizing an informant within Maduro’s inner circle to track his most intimate habits—including his diet and sleep schedule. This “inside job” allowed U.S. forces to bypass fortifications and execute the arrest without casualties.
As Maduro is transported to New York to face narco-terrorism charges, the geopolitical fallout is widening. Trump’s emboldened foreign policy stance led him to simultaneously declare that the U.S. “needs Greenland,” sparking a furious diplomatic row with NATO ally Denmark. Meanwhile, in Caracas, Rodríguez remains defiant under a state of emergency, though her ability to command the fracturing military remains in doubt as the U.S. threatens to dismantle what is left of the regime.
Footage Charlie Kirk has been shot
Charlie Kirk has been shot
