Venezuela Before Maduro's capture, the
Venezuelan government said it rejected and denounced the military aggression, and issued a public statement blaming the
US government for the strikes, which it attributed to a plan to seize Venezuelan resources, particularly oil reserves. Defense Minister
Vladimir Padrino López stated that the attacks were illegal. and that the government had declared a "state of external commotion", a type of
state of emergency, following "Maduro's orders". Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stated that Venezuela "will never again be anyone's colony – neither of old empires, nor of new empires, nor of empires in decline". She argued that the "
war on drugs" was a pretext, claiming the United States' true objective was regime change and control of the country's "energy, mineral and natural resources".
Unitary Platform politician
María Corina Machado published a statement from exile, saying that "what had to happen" for the opposition to take up the mandate they claimed from the 2024 presidential election "is happening". She also said the presidency should be assumed by
Edmundo González, who received a majority of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, according to international observers and election-watchers. González said the opposition was ready to "rebuild our nation" and that the next few hours would be "decisive". Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, offered to share her award with Trump, calling the United States strike as "historic" and thanking him on behalf of the Venezuelan people. The Nobel Prize Committee rejected her request and clarified that the prize "cannot be revoked, shared or transferred".
United States According to Trump, the US would "run" Venezuela until there is a "safe, proper and judicious transition". Trump went on to say that the US and US companies would seize Venezuelan oil and sell it to other countries. Trump said the US would be "very strongly involved" in the
Venezuelan oil industry, Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth said "We are going to get American companies in there" to invest in the Venezuelan oil industry, resulting in "access to additional wealth and resources" for the US. Vice President
JD Vance stated that the operation was justified as Maduro was wanted in the US. He also declared that "the stolen oil must be returned". Chairwoman
Lisa McClain of the
House Republican Conference called Maduro a "narcoterrorist" and said that "Trump didn't look the other way; he acted." After initially expressing uncertainty about the justification of US actions, Republican senator
Mike Lee later said they "likely" fell under the president's
Article II powers to protect against "actual or imminent attack". Democratic senator
Brian Schatz, a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned against any US military involvement in Venezuela, saying that the United States has "no vital national interests in Venezuela to justify war". Former vice president
Kamala Harris criticized the strikes. The mayor of New York City,
Zohran Mamdani, said he called Trump earlier that day to express his opposition to the strikes. The
AFL-CIO condemned the attack, calling it unconstitutional.
Cuba In January 2026,
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel strongly condemned strikes in Venezuela and the subsequent capture of President Nicolás Maduro, labeling the actions as "
state terrorism". On 15 January 2026, he was present, alongside 94-year-old former Cuban leader
Raúl Castro, in a ceremony in
Havana to pay tribute to 32 Cuban soldiers killed in the United States intervention in Venezuela.
Threats to other countries Trump set his sights on a number of countries in the following days. Trump signaled an eagerness to apply pressure on Colombia and said when asked that a similar operation there "sounds good to me". Trump threatened Colombia's president
Gustavo Petro, saying he has "cocaine mills and cocaine factories" and "likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States" but would not be doing it much longer. Trump had recently sanctioned the Colombian leader for his alleged reluctance to combat
drug trafficking in the country. Petro promised to take up arms if he had to, and Colombia's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement opposing "an undue interference" in domestic politics. Days later Trump and Petro agreed in a phone call to work together on combating drug trafficking and domestic insurgency, with Petro demanding that Trump "strike hard" against the
ELN in both Venezuela and Colombia; Petro said fighting the ELN "in the rear" was just as critical as attacking it inside Colombia. Trump threatened Mexico and Cuba, saying the two nations needed to do more to earn US favor, but said the latter might "fall" without US interference; he also expressed hope that Mexico would act on its own. In an appearance on
Hannity Trump said that "We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico".
Newsweek noted that Trump had said land strikes were imminent before, but also that he had been doing the groundwork by designating cartels
Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Trump also warned that
Iran "would be hit very hard" if more demonstrators were killed during the
protests occurring in the country. This would eventually lead to the
2026 Iran war.
Greenland Trump renewed his talk of annexing
Greenland, an
autonomous territory of the
Kingdom of Denmark, with
CNBC noting that this prompted more serious concerns in the wake of Maduro's capture. The US already operates a military base in Greenland,
Pituffik Space Base, and Denmark has indicated its openness to a heightened US military presence there, but Trump has been uninterested in anything less than a full US takeover, noting "that's what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can't do with, you're talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can't get from just signing a document" and "When we own it, we defend it. You don't defend leases the same way, you have to own it". Asked "Psychologically important to you or to the United States?", he said: "Psychologically important for me." Hours after the strikes
Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff
Stephen Miller, posted a picture of a Greenland in the colors of the American flag with the caption "SOON" on
X, prompting a rebuke from Denmark's ambassador to the US that "we expect full respect" for Denmark's
territorial integrity and the two countries, being close allies, should continue to work as such. Over the following days, Stephen Miller asked "by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?", said Denmark and nations in general unable to defend their territory forgo their claim, and that it was both the formal position of the US government and obvious for security that Greenland should be part of the US. he refused but said that such questions are moot: "Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland." Rubio emphasized that any acquisition of Greenland by the US would be negotiated rather than resort to military force, saying Trump's threats were mainly rhetorical and an effort to push Denmark into approving a US-friendly deal. In the following days Trump said the US is "going to do something [there] whether they like it or not", that "We're not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That's what they're going to do if we don't. So we're going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way" and "I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way," that "the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land. [I'm] sure we had lots of boats go there also." On 5 January 2026, Petro, who was a former guerrilla fighter, warned that he would "take up arms" for his country if necessary after the US threatened him and his government, stating that any similar interventions in Colombia would have a response. On 8 January, thousands of Colombians protested against the intervention and the capture of Maduro, including the city of
Cúcuta, near the Venezuelan border. On 10 January, the head of the largest
FARC dissidents group,
Nestor Gregorio Vera, called for other guerrilla groups to unite to face any US intervention. Police in
Trinidad and Tobago, which hosts the largest per-capita population of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, cordoned off key areas of the capital,
Port of Spain. The
government of Trinidad and Tobago, which has hosted US military personnel and vessels amid its recent
buildup in the Caribbean Sea, stated that it did not participate in the attack. The
Cuban government declared two days of national mourning on 5 and 6 January 2026 for its soldiers killed in the attacks. Later on 16 January, tens of thousands of Cubans gathered in the
José Martí Anti-Imperialist Platform outside the
US embassy in Havana to demonstrate against US actions in Venezuela, the killings of 32 Cuban officers in the attack, and to demand the release of Maduro. On 10 January,
Nicaraguan authorities arrested over 60 people for supporting the capture of Maduro. UN Secretary-General
António Guterres stated that US actions had "worrying implications for the region", "constitute[d] a dangerous precedent", and worried "that the rules of international law have not been respected". He called on all Venezuelan actors to engage in an inclusive and democratic dialogue, stating "I welcome and am ready to support all efforts aimed at assisting Venezuelans in finding a peaceful way forward". At the request of China, Colombia, and Russia, the
UNSC convened on 5 January 2026 to discuss the situation. Representatives of Russia and China called for the immediate release of President Maduro while the US representative rejected characterizations of US actions as military aggression, describing the operation as a targeted law enforcement measure to arrest an indicted fugitive. The attack was condemned by other countries, including
Brazil,
China,
France,
Iran,
Mexico,
North Korea,
Russia,
Slovakia,
South Africa, and
Spain. Government leaders in
Argentina,
France,
Israel,
Peru, and
Ukraine praised the developments. French president
Emmanuel Macron initially expressed joy, declaring on social media that "Maduro is a dictator, and his departure is good news for Venezuelans. He confiscated the freedom of his people and stole the
2024 elections." However, days later he nuanced his message, saying that the method employed by the Americans "does not have the support or approval" of France.
United Kingdom prime minister
Keir Starmer said that he was happy for the fall of Maduro, and he would wait to know the facts before commenting further.
José Antonio Kast, the president-elect of Chile, stated that Maduro was not the legitimate president of Venezuela, had "destabilized Latin America", called his capture "great news", and remarked that work remained and the "governments of Latin America must ensure that the entire apparatus of the regime relinquishes power and is held accountable". Spanish prime minister
Pedro Sánchez urged de-escalation, stating that "[i]nternational law and the principles of the U.N. Charter must be respected"; this was echoed by
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief and
European Commission vice-president
Kaja Kallas. Several international trade union organizations, including the
International Trade Union Confederation,
Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, and the
World Federation of Trade Unions, condemned the attack. The
Federal Council of
Switzerland decided to freeze any assets held in the country by Nicolás Maduro.
Celebrations Following Maduro's capture, demonstrations celebrating his removal and opposing his presidency occurred in Caracas, the capital and largest city of Venezuela.
Venezuelans living abroad celebrated Maduro's removal across the United States, Spain, and Latin America. In
Doral, Florida, where the largest population of Venezuelans in the US live, Venezuelans filled the streets waving flags, singing, and chanting "freedom". Thousands of Venezuelans celebrated Maduro's fall in
Madrid, Spain. Videos from the Colombian border city of
Cúcuta showed crowds filling the streets on the night of 3 January 2026, dancing to music and chanting slogans like "virtue" and "a free Venezuela".
Protests Maduro's supporters protested against his capture in Caracas, with protesters holding portraits of Maduro and pro-Maduro and pro- (PSUV) banners. PSUV called for citizens to demand the release of Maduro and Flores. CNN reported that while some Venezuelans celebrated Maduro's ousting, others were skeptical of Trump's motives and condemned the capture of Maduro as a "kidnapping". Outside of New York, hundreds of people in different cities gathered to voice opposition to the strikes. One month after the strikes, the Venezuelan government called for a protest that gathered thousands of supporters for the release of Nicolás Maduro. His son
Nicolás Maduro Guerra addressed the crowd, saying that the 3 January "will remain marked like a scar on our face, forever."
Financial markets and housing Oil prices did not experience a surge, which had been normal with previous conflicts in oil-producing regions; prices increased 1% as of 5 January 2026. The reason is believed to be that Venezuela only represents 1% of the global oil supply and high oil production by other producers, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil. The stock prices of companies that could become involved in Venezuela without spending money, such as oilfield service companies
SLB and
Halliburton, and refiners
Valero Energy and
Marathon Petroleum, surged on 5 January 2026. Some oil companies also saw increases, such as
ExxonMobil and
ConocoPhillips. Bonds issued by the Venezuelan government and the state oil company
PDVSA surged by 30%. Venezuela's bonds went into default in 2017 and doubled in price during the escalating tensions in 2025. Housing prices in Caracas rose from 20% to 50%. In touristic sites like
Margarita Island the housing prices rose up to 80%. Some listing were paused waiting for a stabilization of the economy.
Polling In October, before the strikes, a poll by
AtlasIntel showed that approximately 64% of Venezuelans abroad support US military intervention to depose Maduro, compared with 34% within Venezuela. In December, a poll by Datanalisis found that 55% of Venezuelans opposed foreign military intervention while 23% supported it. After the strikes, a poll by Reuters surveying 1,248 adults in the
United States found that 33% of Americans approved of the military action, while 34% did not; 65% of Republicans supported the action compared to 11% of Democrats, and 72% of Americans were concerned that the US would get too involved in
Venezuela, including 54% of Republicans. The same poll showed that Trump approval ratings rose to 42% after the attack, the highest rating since October 2025, when his approval rating was 39%. According to the
Financial Times, a poll on 30 January by Gold Glove Consulting, a firm run by Mark Feierstein, former Latin America adviser to US president Barack Obama, found that 72% of those polled considered that Venezuela was moving in a positive direction after Maduro's capture. In comparison, in June 2024, three-quarters of respondents thought the country was going in negative direction. 58% said security had worsened since January. In case of elections, 67% favored Maria Corina Machado against 25% for Delcy Rodríguez. As for Rodríguez government actions so far, 37% thought was good or excellent, while 22% did not know and 41% said it was bad or very bad. == Analysis ==