Venezuela-US timeline: How Trump ramped up pressure on Caracas before airstrikes and Maduro capture
The US government has launched a large scale attack on Venezuela and captured it’s president Nicolas Maduro.
Tensions have heightened between the two countries in recent months, with US president Donald Trump threatening to start ordering strikes on targets on Venezuelan soil.
The strikes follow multiple attacks on boats the US claim are smuggling narcotics for drug cartels, and a build up of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest US aircraft carrier.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the US military operations is to force him from office and take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and rare earth mineral deposits.
More than 100 people have been killed in US military strikes targeting small vessels operating in the Caribbean since the campaign began in 2025.
Here is a timeline of the US military actions, concerns among some lawmakers and the response in Venezuela:
Trump signs an executive order that paves the way for criminal organisations and drug cartels to be named “foreign terrorist organizations.” They include Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang.
The US intelligence community has disputed Trump’s central claim that Maduro’s administration is working with Tren de Aragua and orchestrating drug trafficking and illegal immigration into the US.
The Trump administration formally designates eight Latin American crime organisations as foreign terrorist organisations.
The label is normally reserved for groups like al-Qaida or the Islamic State that use violence for political ends — not for profit-focused crime rings.
The US military deploys three guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela.
The naval force in the Caribbean grows within weeks to include three amphibious assault ships and other vessels, carrying about 6,000 sailors and Marines and a variety of aircraft.
The US deploys F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico in September, while a Navy submarine carrying cruise missiles operates off South America.
The US carries out its first strike against what Trump says was a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by Tren de Aragua.
