Name: What comes next in Venezuela?
Uploaded: 2026-01-05T01:33:09.117Z
Duration: 3 min 18 s
Description: The Trump administration has yet to provide significant details on what the endgame is for Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife. CBS News Pentagon reporter Eleanor Watson has more.

The Trump administration has yet to provide significant details on what the endgame is for Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife. CBS News Pentagon reporter Eleanor Watson has more.

Caracas

The U.S has launched strikes on sites inside Venezuela, including military facilities and arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro along wife his wife.

Venezuela Strikes

CBS News Pentagon reporter Eleanor Watson confirmed that Delta Force commandos conducted an extraction raid in Venezuela, successfully returning without leaving any American troops behind. The operation was supported by approximately 15,000 US troops stationed in and around the Caribbean, as well as significant air and naval resources.

President Trump has stated that the US military presence in the region will continue, and he has not ruled out deploying ground troops in Venezuela if necessary. The administration has left open the possibility of further military involvement without specifying an end goal, raising questions about congressional oversight and the long-term US role in Venezuela.

What comes next in Venezuela?

To get into the military reaction to this operation, we're now turning to CBS News Pentagon reporter, Eleanor Watson. Ellie, when it comes to this operation, are there still any American troops in Venezuela right now or the surrounding region? As far as we know, this was an extraction raid that sent Delta Force Commandos into Venezuela and back out without leaving any behind. But that raid was made possible because the US does have about 15,000 US troops that have been built up in and around the Caribbean for several months now. General Dan Cain, yesterday at the press conference in Mar-a-Lago, he's the top US military officer, said about 150 aircraft launched from 20 different bases supported that raid overnight. And the military was ready for a second one if necessary. President Trump has said that that presence, the armada of Navy ships, about a dozen now in the Caribbean Sea and troops on bases in places like Puerto Rico will remain for the foreseeable future. And he said he would not be scared to put boots on the ground inside Venezuela if necessary. And Ellie, last night on the CBS Evening News, we had Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, that is Pete Hegsath on the program. And in that conversation, he sort of kept the door open for a long-term US military involvement in Venezuela, despite notably this being something that President Trump had campaigned against. So what are you hearing from sources inside the military today about how troops feel about the scope of this operation potentially being much broader than initially thought? Well, the Trump administration cabinet in general has left this option open without really giving an end goal, which I think not only the military, but also the American people would like to hear. As you mentioned, the president has campaigned in the past on no more forever wars, criticizing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that sought to nation-build over several years. The most successful missions the president has touted and that the military has touted in the past while he's been in office have been essentially one-and-done operations. If you think of like Operation Midnight Hammer back in the summer that targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, it was in and out, very successful. Back in his first term, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, again, one-and-done. This capture of Maduro in itself is one-and-done. Maduro's now in New York where he'll face charges, but the president has committed to what comes after by pledging in some way to run Venezuela for a period of time. And I think there are several questions left unanswered about what that means for the military going forward. Ellie, we have a couple of seconds left, but I do want to ask about how this project was greenlit. We know members of Congress, as Natalie had mentioned previously, were not informed about this military operation before it happened. What kind of precedent do you think this sets? Secretary Rubio in his press conference tried to justify this by saying it, at its heart, was a law enforcement operation, although we saw significant military support. I think that that justification, that the mission was a success, no Americans killed, several wounded, but no killed, may embolden the administration going forward to use the military without necessarily notifying Congress ahead of time. Okay, Eleanor Watson, thank you.

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What comes next in Venezuela?

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