U.S.-Venezuela tensions LIVE: Trump threatens military operation against Colombia, after Venezuela raid

After removing President Nicolas Maduro from power, the Trump medication is ‍gambling that it tin intimidate the Venezuelan leader’s interior ellipse into toeing the U.S. enactment with threats of further subject enactment that could enactment them astatine hazard of a akin fate, according to sources acquainted with the matter.

The United States would see different subject cognition successful Venezuela if the interim authorities successful the ‌South American federation did not cooperate, U.S. President Donald Trump said connected Sunday (January 4). 

Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One travelling from Florida to Washington that much subject involution was connected the table. “If they don’t behave, we volition bash a 2nd strike,” helium said.

-Reuters

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday (January 4, 2026) that the United States would not instrumentality a day-to-day relation successful governing Venezuela different than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” connected the country, a turnaround aft President Donald Trump announced a time earlier that the U.S. would beryllium moving Venezuela pursuing its ouster of person Nicolas Maduro.

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U.S. President Donald ‌Trump connected Sunday (January 4) threatened subject enactment against Colombia’s government, telling reporters that specified an cognition “sounds bully to me.”

“Colombia is precise sick, too, tally by a ⁠sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the ⁠United States, and he’s not going to beryllium doing it precise long,” ‌Mr. Trump told reporters ‌aboard Air Force One, successful an evident ‍reference to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.

Asked straight whether ‍the U.S. would prosecute a subject cognition against the country, Mr. Trump answered, “It sounds bully to me.”

-Reuters

American subject cognition successful Venezuela killed 32 Cuban officers implicit the weekend, the Cuban authorities said connected Sunday (January 4) successful the archetypal authoritative acknowledgement of the deaths.

The Cuban subject and constabulary officers were connected a ngo the Caribbean country’s subject was carrying retired astatine the petition of Venezuela’s government, according to a connection work connected Cuban authorities TV connected Sunday (January 4) night.

What the Cubans were moving connected successful the South American federation was unclear, but Cuba is simply a adjacent state of Venezuela’s authorities and has sent subject and constabulary forces to assistance successful operations for years.

-AP

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday (January 4) that a ample fig of Nicolas Maduro’s Cuban information unit were killed successful the U.S. cognition to prehend the Venezuelan leader.

“You know, a batch of Cubans were killed yesterday,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, saying that determination was “a batch of decease connected the different side, unfortunately.”

-AFP

Around 2,000 supporters of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro demonstrated Sunday (January 4) successful Caracas to request that helium and his wife, who were nabbed by U.S. forces and taken to a New York jail, beryllium released.

A radical of pro-Maduro paramilitaries and bikers accompanied the demonstrators, who waved red, bluish and yellowish Venezuelan flags.

“Free our President,” work a placard held by a antheral with a reddish flannel garment which bore the representation of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, precocious socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez.

-AFP

Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev and a elder lawmaker ‍said implicit the play that U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions successful Venezuela were unlawful and destabilising, portion portraying them arsenic a ‌blunt assertion of U.S. interests.

-Reuters

Venezuela’s deposed president Nicolas Maduro is scheduled to look earlier a national justice successful New York astatine noon Monday (January 5), to beryllium formally notified astir the charges against him, the tribunal said.

Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized by US forces during a pre-dawn raid Saturday (January 3) successful Caracas and brought to New York to look charges of “narcoterrorism” tied to the alleged trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States.

-AFP