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A recording of a flight radar shows no planes flying over Venezuela after the US carried out strikes in Caracas, the country’s capital, on January 3. See the video here.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized the US raid on Venezuela in a statement released Saturday afternoon.

“Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,” Mamdani wrote. “This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home.”

The statement marks the first possible clash between Mamdani and Trump, who shared a friendly meeting at the White House in November.

Chevron Corporation, founded in 1879 in California, first established a presence in Venezuela in 1923. Now, it operates five onshore and offshore production projects across the country. In a statement to Business Insider on how the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro will impact Chevron’s operations, a spokesperson for the company said it’s prepared to work with the United States.

“Chevron remains focused on the safety of our people and the integrity of our operations. With more than a century in Venezuela, we support a peaceful, lawful transition that promotes stability and economic recovery,” Kevin Slagle, Chevron’s global head of media relations, said. “We’re prepared to work constructively with the US Government during this period, leveraging our experience and presence to strengthen US energy security.”

Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the operation to topple Maduro involved months of planning, rehearsing, and studying Maduro’s patterns of life.

The operation began late Friday night and continued for several hours into Saturday, involving more than 150 US military aircraft, including fighter jets, early warning aircraft, bombers, and drones. These planes attacked Venezuela’s air defenses to pave the way for the apprehension forces, who entered Caracas on low-flying helicopters and stormed a facility to capture Maduro.

The US eventually withdrew from Venezuela and transferred Maduro and his wife to a US Navy ship, where the Venezuelan president was photographed blindfolded.

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Cilia Adela Flores married Maduro in 2013 after years of being romantically connected. She is powerful in her own right, having served as president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, the nation’s lawmaking body, from 2006 to 2011.

In 2015, two of her nephews were arrested in Haiti and brought to the US to face drug charges. The charges were brought by the same office that is handling the case against Maduro and his wife. Her nephews were convicted following a two-week jury trial, and each was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2017. They were released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap.

Elon Musk praised Trump’s military action in Venezuela in a post on X, calling it “a win for the world.”

Musk’s relationship with Trump fractured publicly in June 2025 over the president’s “One Big, Beautiful, Bill,” following a stint as a White House special advisor and de facto head of DOGE.

The two showed signs of reconciliation in the fall of last year, and Musk was invited to a state dinner held for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November of 2025.

From a markets perspective, the price of crude oil will be top of mind for investors. It’s also what will most directly impact everyday Americans, if there’s a prolonged disruption, in the form of prices at the pump.

The commodity doesn’t trade over the weekend, but any future price action will likely be driven by how the situation with Venezuela impacts the world’s overall supply of oil.

Three key considerations suggest the impact on oil prices will be muted in the near term:

• Although Venezuela is now sitting on 303 billion barrels of oil — a fifth of the world’s reserve — it presently accounts for less than 1% of daily global crude production
• Reports say Venezuela’s oil infrastructure wasn’t impacted by the series of US attacks, minimizing any potential disruption
• The global oil surplus is expected to reach a record in 2026

As shown in the chart below, crude oil prices have fallen 20% since the start of 2025. A big part of that is the oversupply mentioned in the third bullet above. Expect oil prices to remain in this range as long as supply and reserves remain strong.

Delta, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines said they canceled flights to the Caribbean on Saturday morning following the US strike against Venezuela.

The cancellations are in “compliance with FAA airspace closures in the Caribbean,” Delta said in a statement.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement that flights impacted included those with destinations to Aruba, Aruba; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

American Airlines issued a similar statement, listing the impacted destinations for its flights.

About 300 flights to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, were canceled, according to FlightAware. The Puerto Rican airport issued the following statement:

Trump said the US pulled off an “extraordinary military operation” in Venezuela.

Speaking from Florida, the president said the US turned off the lights in Caracas using “certain expertise,” although he did not elaborate.

Trump said Venezuela’s defenses were in a “very ready position” and “waiting” for a US attack, but were quickly “overwhelmed” by American forces. He said the military is prepared to stage a larger, second wave of airstrikes if needed.

Trump said in a press conference from Mar-a-Lago on Saturday that the US will send its oil companies to Venezuela to “spend billions of dollars.” Earlier, he said Washington will be strongly involved in the country’s oil industry moving forward.

Trump also said the US is “going to run the country” until it can facilitate a safe transition of power in Venezuela, which he says must be “judicious.”

“We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela,” Trump said.

The president did not specify how the US plans to govern the country, which has a population of nearly 30 million people, in the interim.

Trump published video footage that appears to show the US operation unfolding in Venezuela.

In a Truth Social post, the president shared a video compilation of low-flying helicopters and strikes apparently being carried out inside the country. Several large explosions are visible, leaving tall plumes of black smoke.

The footage — set to “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival — appears similar to other videos published earlier on social media.

Trump shared an image of captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in US custody following strikes on the country and a raid by American forces.

The photo posted to the president’s Truth Social account was captioned, “Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima.” The Iwo Jima, a landing helicopter dock where Maduro was taken after capture, is a US Navy amphibious assault ship.

Maduro can be seen in the photo wearing ear protection, a blindfold, and cuffs while holding a bottle of water.

Notably absent from the 2026 indictment is Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios. Known informally as “El Pollo,” Carvajal Barrios was a high-ranking member of the Maduro government before he broke ranks in 2019. He went into hiding in Spain and was captured (twice) before being extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty last June to a range of drug-related charges.

El Pollo is mentioned seven times in the new indictment, suggesting he could be key to the government’s case against Maduro.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has released a public statement, saying the opposition is “prepared to enforce our mandate and take power.”

“Nicolás Maduro, as of today, is facing international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations,” the statement reads.

“In light of his refusal to accept a negotiated exit, the government of the United States has fulfilled its promise to uphold the rule of law.”

Trump is scheduled to speak from Mar-a-Lago about the Venezuela raid that captured Maduro. You can watch on the White House livestream below.

Trump said US forces stormed a “fortress” to capture Maduro, who had tried to reach a “safety space” surrounded by steel.

Speaking to Fox, Trump said “a couple of guys” and a US helicopter took fire during the operation, but he believes that no one was killed.

The president described the raid as being “very organized,” involving “highly trained soldiers.” He said the raid was planned with “pinpoint” accuracy, and revealed that the US built a model house identical to the one that was raided — a tactic similar to what the US did ahead of the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

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US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday posted the new Maduro indictment on X. The one she shared is an expanded version of the 2020 indictment, accusing Maduro of a widespread conspiracy to traffic drugs into the United States.

It names some new defendants, however — notably Maduro’s wife Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro and son Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra.

Manhattan federal prosecutors indicted Muduro and other members of his government in 2020, during the first Trump administration.

That indictment carried many of the same charges cited by US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday as the basis for Saturday’s arrest.

The 2020 case, which remains active, alleges narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession and use of machine guns and destructive devices. It does not, however, mention Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, suggesting that the latest charges could be brought in a refiled or expanded indictment.

“Stranger Things” began as the story of a group of pre-teens who, after one of their best friends goes missing, become tangled in a dangerous web of government conspiracies, alternate dimensions, the Cold War, and more.

Since its debut in 2016, the show has become a phenomenon, spawning millions of dollars in merch, tie-in novels and comics, a stage adaptation, mobile games, a tabletop game, at least one animated spinoff, and more.

One of the show’s breakout characters is Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown), a young girl born with telekinesis. Immediately after her birth, she was abducted by a scientist whom she calls Papa (Matthew Modine) and taken to Hawkins Lab, where she and other children were experimented on.

The show wrapped up its fifth and final season on December 31.

In 2016, Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that “Stranger Things” was originally sold as “Montauk” before they decided to switch the name and the location to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.

“We liked Montauk, because we liked the coastal setting,” Matt Duffer said, adding that Montauk was also the basis for Amity Island, the fictional location of “Jaws,” one of their favorite movies.

However, the setting changed when they realized “it was really going to be impossible to shoot in or around Long Island in the wintertime,” Matt Duffer said.

Filmmaker Charlie Kessler, sued the brothers in 2018, claiming they stole the idea of “Stranger Things” from his script “The Montauk Project,” Thrillist reported. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the Duffers denied his claims, and Kessler dropped the lawsuit in 2019.

Spoiler for the series finale: Montauk even got referenced by name in the last episode, when Hopper mentioned that a friend mentioned that the town was looking for a new sheriff.

According to signs in the park outlining Camp Hero’s history, the US Army commissioned Camp Hero in May 1942 — five months after the US joined World War II in December 1941 — to defend against German submarines and boats.

The Army deactivated the base in 1947 and turned it over to the US Air Force in 1951, which remained there until 1982.

Camp Hero, named for Major General Andrew Hero Jr., who served as the chief of coast artillery from 1926 to 1930, according to Arlington National Cemetery, opened to the public in 2002.

Montauk is commonly known as The End. It’s the last town on Long Island, making it the perfect spot for an Army base scanning the oceans for submarines hiding in the depths below.

As a huge fan of “Stranger Things” with a mild interest in secret governmental conspiracy theories, I figured I’d drive out east and laugh with my mom (who made the trek with me) about the wildest things we’d learn about Camp Hero.

Instead, I came away feeling like “Stranger Things” got the atmosphere of this place exactly right.

I’m from a town on Long Island 99 miles west of Montauk, so it took me around two hours to drive there.

When there’s no traffic, it can be a fun drive. You pass through picturesque towns worth a stop, like Amagansett, East Hampton, Southampton, Wainscott, and more.

Curbed reported that celebrities including Julianne Moore, Ralph Lauren, and Robert De Niro have owned real estate in the town.

I grew up on Long Island and have been to Montauk dozens of times, but I’d never explored Camp Hero before.

Montauk Lighthouse, according to the Montauk Historical Society, was the first lighthouse to be built in New York after George Washington commissioned it in 1792. Today, it’s a Long Island landmark that is part of the adjacent Montauk Point State Park.

It’s also the fourth-oldest working lighthouse in the US and just one of 12 lighthouses to be named a National Historic Landmark.

Or, if you’re a New York resident with an Empire Pass like I am, it’s free.

According to New York State’s Parks Department, the Empire Pass “permits unlimited vehicle access to most facilities operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”

Essentially, it gets you into most New York state parks for free. A card costs $80 per year (or $72 a year for a digital card), or you can purchase a lifetime pass for $750 (or $742 for a digital card). Three-season and five-season passes are also available, as shown on the parks’ website.

As my family members are big fans of Jones Beach, another state park, we’ve had an Empire Pass for as long as I can remember.

I was surprised to learn that a decent chunk of land is off-limits to visitors and is a wildlife and plant sanctuary.

There are a few parks in the Montauk area that offer a good view of the bluffs, including Shadmoor State Park, Montauk Point State Park, and Ditch Plains Beach.

This wouldn’t be the last warning sign I’d see that day.

Erosion is also a huge problem on Long Island’s beaches. The Patch reported that the town of East Hampton, which includes Montauk, was given a $350,000 federal grant to address the erosion issues along the coastline in December 2022.

Officials told The Patch that, according to measurements by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Montauk’s shoreline “eroded more than 44 feet inland between 2000 and 2012.”

In the years since, the erosion has only continued, so I heeded the sign’s warnings and stayed as far back as possible.

The radar tower looms over Camp Hero. I knew I needed to make my way over there to get a good look.

More about those conspiracy theories later.

According to signs in the park, the Army built batteries throughout the base. Batteries 112 and 113, which are both still standing, contained two 16-inch guns each. The artillery was removed in 1947.

Even from a distance, you can see just how big it is.

Being up close was somehow even more unsettling.

According to signs in the park, the “giant” radar, specifically an AN/FPS-35, was built in 1960, and it remained operational until 1980.

Its radar dish was built to detect an attack on the US. As The New York Times reported in 2006, it was once “able to detect airborne objects more than 200 miles from shore.”

At the peak of the Cold War, multiple towers were located throughout the eastern US, but now, the Montauk tower is the only one left.

The radar tower is central to many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Camp Hero.

Filmmaker Christopher Garetano, who directed a docudrama about Camp Hero called “Montauk Chronicles” in 2014, spoke about the radar dish during a History Channel documentary called “The Dark Files.”

“Every 12 seconds the radar tower would rotate and there would be animals freaking out and people getting headaches and bad dreams,” says Garetano in “The Dark Files,” claiming “people’s electronic equipment would go haywire” when the dish rotated.

“I don’t want to add fuel to the fire because I don’t believe all the zombie stuff,” one resident of 40 years told The New York Post in 2020. “But the impact that tower had on the town was real. I don’t know if it affected our thoughts like some people say, but it was a force.”

Ticks are frequent carriers of Lyme disease. That was more than enough to keep me away from any heavily wooded areas.

The New York Times reported in 2006 that visitors to Camp Hero were given pamphlets about what to do in case they spotted an undetonated grenade or other unexploded ammunition — it did use to be an active military base, after all.

At first, I scoffed, but as the day went on, I started to see what she meant.

It was spookily silent as we walked through the woods, even though we weren’t too far from the beach or a busy highway. I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

As you can see, it looks like we were just about to walk into a heavily wooded forest.

In the first episode of “Stranger Things,” Mike, Lucas, and Dustin search the woods for their friend Will after he goes missing while biking home. The trio are searching on a rainy night when they suddenly come across Eleven, who had just escaped Hawkins Lab.

At the end of season one, Eleven returns to the woods to escape the lab’s clutches.

I’ve read one too many stories about tourists falling to their deaths while trying to take the perfect selfie. Staying on the flat path was enough for me.

This rock was helpfully in the perfect place for me to pose for a photo.

Fishing is one of Camp Hero’s biggest draws, and I saw a few fishermen on the beach casting their lines.

He was just a friendly pet running back to his owner, but safe to say, we were both on edge.

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to take a picture of this dog — that’s how you know my mom and I were truly freaked out.

This building used to be a gymnasium.

The sign in front explained more about downtown Camp Hero. When the base was built in 1947, 600 men and 37 officers lived in this area, and the structures were disguised as a “seaside fishing village,” with artificial wood siding and fake windows.

The gym was designed to look like a church. It’s the only structure left from the original “downtown” Camp Hero, though other newer buildings are still standing.

I was half-convinced that someone was just going to pop out of the windows if I got too close.

We didn’t want to scare the deer away, so we kept our distance while exploring the buildings.

According to a comprehensive summary of the conspiracy theories surrounding Camp Hero written by Thrillist in 2016, the events that conspiracy theorists claim happened in Camp Hero were actually pretty similar to what happens in “Stranger Things.”

Author Preston Nichols brought the theories into the mainstream when he published 1992’s “The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time,” which detailed his reported experiences working at Montauk Air Force Station — he claimed he’d recovered repressed memories of his time at the base in the ’70s and ’80s. 

Nichols said he worked with another former employee on something called the “Montauk Chair,” which used electromagnets to strengthen psychic powers. In season four of “Stranger Things,” Eleven uses something similar to recover her powers.

Nichols also said scientists at the base used abducted children (like Eleven and her “siblings”) to perform experiments on, and that some were even sent to an unknown dimension (like the Upside Down).

Eventually, these experiments were shut down when one of the children summoned an interdimensional monster, Nichols wrote — just like Eleven bringing the Demogorgon to our world.

Joe Loffreno told the Post in 2020 that he believes he’s one of the children who were abducted and experimented on and who were mentioned in “The Montauk Project.”

“I didn’t believe it until two years ago,” Loffreno said. “I was hypnotized [by a certified hypnotist] for about 40 minutes and all these memories flooded back. They did a very bad thing to us out there. We were just little kids. They had no right to experiment on us. It was a very dark, very evil thing.”

Garetano, director of “Montauk Chronicles,” spoke with Newsday in 2017 about the reported tunnels. He said that when the History Channel was filming for “The Dark Files,” they found proof that the tunnels existed.

“Something extraordinary was found, which goes against all the official statements that there isn’t anything there,” Garetano said. “We didn’t get into them, but we have footage of them that was taken by someone else.” He added that they saw something on the “electric resistivity imagery tests” that were conducted.

Another local, Paul Fagan, told the New York Post that he believes a nuclear reactor might’ve secretly been buried at the base in the ’50s, and that any conspiracy theories are actually meant to distract from the reactor’s existence.

The New York Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the claims.

The Army and the Air Force have never appeared to go on the record about the claims either, and they did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider either.

When the Army built the base, it was used to surveil the surrounding area for German submarines, and it was also an antiaircraft artillery training station. At the time, according to the sign, all antiaircraft units in New York were sent to Camp Hero for a few weeks to train.

The sign also said it was home to other surveillance and height-finding radar that “guarded the New York City area against a surprise attack by Soviet bombers or other missiles.”

The base was also used “extensively” as a live-fire training range until it was shut down in the ’80s.

There are no lights and very little signage — I could see myself getting hopelessly lost in the woods.

Even though it was just a few minutes down the road, the atmosphere was completely different. The parking lot was bustling, and I could hear kids laughing as they explored the beach. I felt like I had just been to a completely different world.

I’d recommend making the drive if you’re already in Montauk or the Hamptons.

Do I really believe that there were scientists using abducted children to contact a different dimension at Camp Hero?

No.

However, I understand the fascination with Camp Hero — the fact that the radar tower and other disguised buildings are still standing decades later, the secluded location, and the idea that there could be secret tunnels underground are all compelling fodder for urban legends.

Anyone interested in military history or conspiracy theories would learn a lot at Camp Hero, and I’d recommend visiting — but only during the day, and not on your own.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in August 2023 and was most recently updated in January 2026.