Video: Miami Venezuelans Celebrate Capture of Nicolás Maduro

At around 5 a.m. this morning, as the world awoke to news that the United States had bombed Venezuela and captured Nicolás Maduro in an overnight military action, Venezuelans began gathering outside a gas station in Doral to celebrate.

The sun had not yet risen when people draped in Venezuelan flags and wearing the national colors — red, yellow, and blue — started forming a crowd at the gas station outside the popular El Arepazo restaurant to cheer the capture of the Venezuelan dictator. Some danced. Others cried. Many could be heard chanting: “Libertad!”

“I mean, my chest, it feels like it’s gonna explode with joy,” one man named Edgar, who moved to the U.S. from Venezuela when he was 11, told Local 10.

By around 8 a.m., hundreds of people had gathered outside the restaurant, which serves arepas and other traditional Venezuelan specialties.

Colloquially known as Doralzuela, the suburban city of Doral has one of the highest concentrations of Venezuelan-Americans of any U.S. city. It’s unclear whether any demonstrations are planned across Doral or other parts of Miami this weekend.

The celebrations in Miami come after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday that resulted in the capture of the country’s president and first lady. At least seven explosions sent Venezuelans rushing into the streets overnight. There is still no official word on casualties.

According to the Associated Press, the legal authority for the attack was not immediately clear.

In a statement shortly after the bombings, Maduro’s government accused Washington of an “extremely serious military aggression.”

“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against the Venezuelan territory and people,” the Venezuelan government said.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife would face charges after an indictment in New York. Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Trump told Fox News that the couple was aboard the U.S. warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they will face prosecution.

The president is slated to host a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach at 11 a.m.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.