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The blasts began before dawn on Saturday, jolting people from their sleep.
First, Caracas was rocked by a loud explosion at about 2.30am and then what residents described as a kind of blast wave. A series of further loud bangs followed.
“You can see the reflection of the flames and the smoke,” said Daniela, a resident living just outside the centre of Venezuela’s capital, after the dramatic early-morning aerial bombardment.
The strikes appeared to have targeted military installations and strategic infrastructure such as telephone towers, said Daniela, who did not want her full name to be published.
Videos shared on social media showed several helicopters flying low against the city as explosions lit up the skyline and plumes of smoke rose into the sky. Images showed panicked residents fleeing areas near the blasts and armed government supporters on the capital’s streets.
Defence minister Vladimir Padrino said the US had “profaned our sacred soil” in Fuerte Tiuna, a military installation, as well as Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira with its strikes, which followed months of US military build-up in the region.
The Americans had “struck with missiles and rockets shot from combat helicopters in civilian neighbourhoods, for which we are collecting information regarding injured and dead”, he added.
According to residents, the explosions lasted for about an hour. Then came an eerie silence.
And then the announcement by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform that Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro had been captured with his wife and flown out of the country.
The US appeared to have deposed a Latin American leader for the first time since its invasion of Panama in 1989.
Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s vice-president, said Maduro’s whereabouts were not known and demanded that Trump provide “proof of life”.
Interior minister Diosdado Cabello called for people to turn out to defend Venezuela’s national sovereignty.
“Let’s get out on the streets, all of us who can. We’re going to mobilise our people,” he said. “These rats attacked and they will regret this all their lives.”
Government-aligned paramilitaries known as colectivos have already been dispatched in recent weeks to poor neighbourhoods in Caracas to snuff out dissent in former government strongholds.
Shortly after the first explosions on Saturday morning, colectivos were seen in the working-class neighbourhoods of 23 de Enero and Petare. In 23 de Enero, they took control of the area and prevented residents from taking to the streets — despite Cabello’s call.
“I was riding my motorcycle when these armed men stopped me, searched my belongings and my cell phone, and forced me to return home,” one person told the Financial Times. “They were guarding the entire neighbourhood.”
In Petare, Elio Serrano — the governor of Miranda state, which includes part of Caracas — walked the streets flanked by about 30 colectivo members and government supporters as he told state television cameras that the US should “hand back” Maduro.
Some in Caracas reported internet failures, while images showed some streets without power. “We don’t know what’s going on, we just have to wait and see,” said Francisco, a resident.
“Following Cabello’s comments, people are mostly staying at home,” said one person living in southeast Caracas. “There’s a lot of fear.”
At one beach town outside Caracas, residents said the streets were filled at 4am with cars tooting their horns and new year-style revelry following the strikes.
But in a sign of how confused the situation remains, they added that on the seaside promenade there were also Chavista supporters wearing red shirts and berets, appearing unperturbed.
“I’ve been on the phone with people in Caracas all night,” said Daniel Lansberg-Rodríguez, managing partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based global risk consultancy. He said there was “a nervous excitement maybe” but also pervasive fear.
Maduro has ruled the oil-rich Caribbean nation since 2013, when he took the helm following the death of Hugo Chávez, architect of the socialist “Bolivarian revolution”.
By 10am, queues began forming at some supermarkets in the capital as locals stocked up for uncertain days ahead.
Daniela said: “A lot of people might be saying ‘finally — this is the beginning of the end’. But I don’t know.
“We’ve been in this mess for 25 years. It’s been too many years of nothing happening.”
One local businessman was cautiously optimistic. “It’s still too soon but you can sense the hope,” he said. “People are celebrating inside their homes, given we just lived through a bombing.”
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