OAN Staff Alex Cammarata
12:06 PM –Monday, January 5, 2026
A large part of Nicolás Maduro’s security team was killed during a United States military operation to capture him.
On Sunday, Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, made the announcement in a televised statement.
However, Padrino did not give an exact figure of how many members were killed.
He then went on to back the declaration of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as interim president.
Rodríguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, has served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018 and was appointed by the Supreme Court as the acting president for the next 90 days following Maduro’s capture.
Additionally, Padrino announced that armed forces have been activated across the country to guarantee sovereignty.
“We activate, throughout the entire national geographic space and in perfect popular military–police fusion, the complete operational readiness posture, in order to integrate the elements of the national power in the mission of confronting imperial aggression, forming a single combat bloc to ensure the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of the nation,” he stated.
The ousted Maduro has been arraigned on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine-importation conspiracy which he has pleaded not guilty to.
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