US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife had been extracted by helicopter and transferred to a US Navy ship, from where they would be taken to New York to face federal charges, marking one of the most dramatic escalations in Washington’s long-running confrontation with Caracas.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump said the operation involved helicopters ferrying Maduro and his wife to the USS Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship operating in the Caribbean Sea.
“They’re on a ship, but they’ll be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out,” Trump said. When asked to clarify, the president was explicit: “Yes, the Iwo Jima, they’re on a ship. They’ll be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out, and they went by helicopter in a nice flight — I’m sure they loved it. But they’ve, they’ve killed a lot of people, remember that.”
Trump also posted an image on his Truth Social platform showing Maduro in custody aboard a US naval vessel, wearing a blindfold and handcuffs. “Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima,” Trump wrote, a post that immediately reverberated across global media and financial markets.
The White House framed the operation as the culmination of a pressure campaign that included repeated offers for Maduro to step aside peacefully. Asked about the off-ramps he had provided to the Venezuelan leader, Trump said bluntly: “Well, basically I said, you have to give up. You have to surrender.”
US Vice President JD Vance reinforced the administration’s position, saying Venezuela had ignored multiple opportunities to reach an agreement. In a post on X, Vance said Maduro was the “newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.”
“The president offered multiple off-ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,” Vance wrote. He also emphasized the US legal rationale for Maduro’s capture, describing him as a fugitive from American justice.
“You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,” Vance said, echoing long-standing US accusations that Maduro and senior figures in his government were involved in narcotics trafficking and transnational crime.
US officials did not immediately release details of the specific charges Maduro is expected to face in New York, though US courts have for years issued indictments accusing the Venezuelan leader and others of conspiring with drug cartels. Legal experts said the transfer of a sitting—or recently deposed—foreign leader to US jurisdiction would raise complex questions under international law, even as the Trump administration argued that Maduro’s legitimacy had long since evaporated.
At the center of the operation is the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), a vessel whose name carries heavy symbolic and historical weight. The ship is named after the brutal 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, when US Marines fought Japanese forces in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific campaign and raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi, creating one of the most iconic images in US military history.
The current Iwo Jima is the second US Navy ship to bear the name. The first, a smaller helicopter carrier designated LPH-2, saw extensive service during the Vietnam War before being retired in the early 1990s.
Commissioned in 2001 after hitting the water in February 2000, the modern Iwo Jima is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship — effectively a small aircraft carrier optimized for Marine Corps operations. Measuring about 844 feet (257 meters) in length and displacing roughly 40,000 tons when fully loaded, the ship is designed to transport, deploy, and sustain a full Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in combat or crisis-response scenarios.
As of early January 2026, the Iwo Jima has been operating in the Caribbean Sea as the centerpiece of its Amphibious Ready Group. That group typically includes San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks such as the USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale, forming a powerful and flexible naval task force.
On board the Iwo Jima are elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, numbering roughly 2,000 Marines. They are supported by a diverse aviation contingent that includes MV-22B Osprey tiltrotors for rapid troop movement, CH-53E Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopters, AH-1Z attack helicopters, and MH-60 Seahawk variants for utility and maritime missions.
The ship’s well deck can deploy landing craft, including LCAC hovercraft, capable of rushing troops, armored vehicles, and supplies ashore. Its full-length flight deck supports intense aviation operations, including vertical or short takeoff aircraft.
Although officially designated as an LHD, or Landing Helicopter Dock, the Iwo Jima functions in many respects like a light aircraft carrier. The Wasp-class ships can operate AV-8B Harrier II jets and, increasingly, the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter, giving them significant strike and air-defense capabilities.
According to US Navy sources, the Iwo Jima’s current embarked air wing is tied to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (VMM-263) Reinforced. This includes AV-8B Harrier II+ jets, some equipped to carry AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, providing a measure of air combat capability beyond close air support.
The ship also carries CH-53E Super Stallions and MV-22B Ospreys for heavy lift and rapid insertion, making it well-suited for both high-end military operations and humanitarian assistance missions. In recent months, the Iwo Jima and its associated task force have been conducting live-fire exercises, maritime patrols, and amphibious drills across the region. Satellite imagery and official US Navy statements have confirmed deployments near Venezuelan waters since at least late summer 2025.
In short, analysts say, the presence of the Iwo Jima represents a serious show of force in what has become an increasingly tense neighborhood.
Inside Venezuela and across its diaspora, the news triggered a cascade of reactions. Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado declared that a historic moment had arrived.
“Venezuelans, the HOUR OF FREEDOM has arrived!” Machado wrote on social media. “Today we are ready to enforce our mandate and take power. Let us remain vigilant, active, and organized until the Democratic Transition is realized. A transition that needs ALL of us.”
Machado said order would be restored and called for Edmundo González Urrutia to be “recognized as Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces by all officers and soldiers.”
Machado, a prominent figure in the opposition, was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election and was replaced on the ballot by González Urrutia, a relatively little-known diplomat. She has been widely praised by supporters for her uncompromising stance against authoritarianism, while critics have accused her of aligning too closely with Trump and US hardliners.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Nobel Committee described as “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
González Urrutia, for his part, struck a tone of urgency and resolve. “These are decisive hours,” he wrote on X on Saturday. “Know that we are ready for the great operation of the reconstruction of our nation.”
The extraction of Maduro and his transfer to US custody, if carried through as described, would mark an unprecedented moment in modern hemispheric politics. Allies and adversaries alike are watching closely, weighing the legal, military, and political precedents being set.
For the Trump administration, the operation underscores a willingness to use overwhelming force and dramatic action to resolve long-running disputes. For Venezuela, it could signal the end of an era — or the beginning of a volatile and uncertain transition.
As the USS Iwo Jima steams north toward New York with its most high-profile “passenger,” the consequences of that journey are likely to ripple far beyond the Caribbean, reshaping relations between Washington, Latin America, and the wider world.
