On 3 January 2026 U.S. special forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas and flew them to New York, where he had been indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism charges. The administration called it a law-enforcement operation backed by the military. People were killed in the raid; the toll has not been confirmed independently. In October 2026 both pleaded not guilty to an added torture charge; trial is set for June 2027. [1][2][3][4][5]
Months earlier, in September 2025, the U.S. began striking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that it said were run by drug cartels it had designated as terrorists. The first strike, on 2 September, killed nine people; a follow-up strike ordered by Adm. Frank Bradley killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized lethal force and said he did not see the survivors. [6][7][8]
The government says the strikes are lawful attacks on armed enemies. Many legal experts, including some former military lawyers, say drug smugglers are criminals, not combatants, and that killing shipwrecked survivors is prohibited under the laws of war in any case. The government has made public little of its evidence about who was on the boats. [9][10]
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