Georgia Howe

Early this morning, several explosions could be heard in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas.

Venezuelan officials soon confirmed that they'd been hit with strikes, saying civilian and military localities of the capital and three states were hit in the attack.

At least four locations appear to have been targeted.

Venezuela's largest military base, an air base, a port north of Caracas, and an airport east of Caracas.

Hmm.

Now, President Donald Trump confirmed the strikes around 3 a.m.

and also announced a press conference that we'll hear from in a second.

Then, by about 6 a.m., Attorney General Pam Bondi issued her own statement detailing charges against Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores.

The two have been indicted in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism conspiracy conspiracy.

cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.

Now, as we've been documenting on this show, there has been a rapid escalation of tensions between the U.S.

and Venezuela over first drug boats and then oil shipments.

The U.S.

had seized two oil takers off the

And Trump had repeatedly demanded that Maduro step down or face more consequences.

The last we heard from Maduro, he was desperately trying to claim that he was, quote, ready to talk about an agreement to combat drug trafficking.

Apparently.

Right, so just before noon, President Trump addressed the nation from Mar-a-Lago.

First, he stressed that we lost no soldiers in the operation, and he touted the United States' military expertise in carrying it out.

In fact, he said, the mission was so successful that while they'd planned for a second set of even stronger strikes, it doesn't appear to be necessary.