Fire, smoke rises at Venezuelan Port of La Guaira after US airstrikes

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An eyewitness video posted on social media showed fire and plumes of smoke rising above the Port of La Guaira to the north of Venezuela’s capital of Caracas following the U.S. airstrike on Saturday January 3, 2026. Footage confirms a precision JSOW strike on a Venezuelan Buk-M2E air defense system stationed in a Caracas hangar. This massive cook-off highlights the extreme vulnerability of grouped missile batteries during high-tension military operations. Massive secondary explosions rock the Port of La Guaira! Watch as a U.S. precision-guided munition scores a direct hit on a Venezuelan Buk-M2E surface-to-air missile system. The launcher was hidden among civilian warehouses, but it couldn't escape detection. The impact triggered a catastrophic chain reaction, causing ready-to-fire missiles to detonate in a series of blinding fireballs and cook-offs that lit up the Caracas night sky. The U.S. has carried out strikes inside Venezuela, as explosions rocked the capital Caracas following President Donald Trump’s announcement early Saturday morning that the US carried out a “large scale strike against Venezuela” and that President Nicolas Maduro and his wife have been captured and removed from the country. The Venezuelan government said attacks also took place in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, prompting Maduro to declare a national emergency and mobilize defense.