The British military has officially denied UK military involvement in Donald Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife. This is despite one of the American warships involved “always” having a Royal Navy navigator onboard. And reports that at least two other Brits were working in the regime-change armada.
An MOD spokesperson said:
As the Prime Minister has already stated, the UK was not involved in any way in this operation.
They added:
Armed forces personnel regularly serve on exchange programmes with our key military partners around the world. We do not provide details on specific individuals due to operational/personal security.
Needless to say, there are holes in this story so big you could drive a US aircraft carrier through them.
The Attacker’s in Caracas
US Gangster-in-Chief Donald Trump finally pulled the trigger on Venezuela on 3 January 2026. After months of rhetoric about drug traffickers, unlawful at-sea airstrikes and acts of piracy, the truth was laid bare in his own words. The US wants Venezuelan oil. In fact it considers that resource its own property. And it will tear up whatever is left of international law to get it.
The US kidnapping – let’s call it what it is – of President Nicolas Maduro involved massive air power, cyber-attacks and special forces. There are reports that both Venezuelan civilians and members of Maduro’s security forces were killed during the raid. Trump has since said the US will be running Venezuela from now on.
In a typically potent display of sniveling weakness, UK PM Keir Starmer refused to condemn the attacks. Ever the sycophant, he insisted the UK wasn’t involved in the attacks any way:
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer refuses to condemn illegal US bombing of Venezuela, kidnap of its head of state Nicolas Maduro and his wife…pic.twitter.com/Oslvf16d7h
— BRASILWIRE (@BRASILWIRE) January 3, 2026
But we already know this is a lie.
For one thing, the UK has backed and supported regime change in Venezuela for a long time. More specifically, we know that as of November UK military personnel were aboard US warships deployed at part of Trump’s regime-change armada in the Caribbean. The Canary exclusively reported the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) deeply unconvincing denials at the time.
We’ve asked the MOD if Brits were still aboard US warships during the attack on Venezuela. But even if they’d been pulled off the mission for the raid, they were still part of the build-up to it.
But let’s go back to the start of all this.
Build-up to war in Venezuela
Since September the US has been unlawfully hitting ‘drug boats’ in the Caribbean and Pacific. The death toll so far is 114. This was accompanied by a massive build-up of overt and covert military forces in the region. The Trump administration drew on War on Terror framing and outlawed figures in the Maduro government as ‘narco-terrorists’.
Never mind that the legal basis for any of that was shaky at best. Nobody really believed that the build-up was about stopping drugs like fentanyl, as claimed. Because Venezuela, as even the New York Times points out, does not produce fentanyl in any significant amount.
What Venezuela does have is oil. Bigger proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia, in fact. Add to this that the US indictment for Maduro and some of his cabinet members released after his kidnapping mentions Fentanyl precisely zero times:
The US indictment of Maduro and co mentions fentanyl zero times.https://t.co/rK019iK0gz pic.twitter.com/Pt8CJeZApO
— joe glenton new era (@jjgjourno) January 4, 2026
You can search for yourself here.
The Brits in the Caribbean
British involvement has been kept very quiet, though the UK has long been openly anti-Maduro and opposed the left-wing nationalist program of his mentor Hugo Chavez. In fact, the UK even suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the boat strikes.
However, in November the Canaryreported that UK personnel were embedded in the massive US military deployment. We drew even a refusal to comment for the MoD.
The story was originally picked up by the Murdoch-owned Sky News:
On 17 November, Sky News reported that Royal Navy personnel were aboard the US navy’s supercarrier, USS Ford, and another unspecified US warship.
Sky added:
A small number of British military personnel – single digits – are understood to be deployed on USS Gerald R Ford, a giant US aircraft carrier, and other warships that form part of the carrier strike group that has been sent towards Venezuela.
And Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky at the time:
We will make sure as we always do that our British military are consistent with international humanitarian law.
Needless to say, Healey’s claim looks a little shaky now.
The Canary challenged the MoD on the matter of embedded personnel. We asked if any of the personnel were aircrew or marines. This was important because UK pilots have previously flown US jets over Syria and because the Royal Marines contribute a large number of soldiers to UK Special Forces, who often work on exchange with US Special Forces.
UK military embedded on US ships
We also asked:
for the numbers, plus ranks, specialisms, and trades of UK personnel in the Caribbean armada positioned to undertake operations related to Venezuela.
A Royal Navy Spokesperson told us:
Armed forces personnel regularly serve on exchange programmes with our key military partners around the world.
They added a single bulleted caveat:
We do not provide specific details on individuals due to operational and personal security.
A massive, though not unexpected, cop-out from the UK military.
And, as we reported at the time:
The hard-right Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper and the Navy’s own website seem to confirm Lieutenant Commander Owen Long is currently serving as a navigator aboard the USS Winston Churchill, currently deployed in the Caribbean.
According to tradition, the Churchill alwayshas a British navigator as a nod to US/UK cooperation in the Second World War. To our knowledge the Churchill remains part of the US mission against Venezuela.
The UK military has questions to answer over Venezuela
On Monday 5 January we asked the MOD a four additional questions on this issue about embedded personnel:
- Can you confirm they were present during the recent US operation to carry out airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnap President Nicolas Maduro?
- If so, what was their precise role in that operation?
- What were the legal and diplomatic considerations/opinion involved?
- If they were not, was it the case they were withdrawn from the US warships for that operation?
We now have a sort of answer. Typically, the MOD swerved most of our questions in favour of a pretty weak denial.
Additionally, the military-adjacent UK Defence Journal inferred US special forces have transited back to Europe via UK airbases after the Caracas raid.
We await with baited breath for clearer answers. But we accept we might be waiting a while. The Times‘ Steve Swinford tweeted a bleak picture of the UK government’s position this morning.
From the sounds of it, Starmer is going to completely avoid commenting on the issue for fear of upsetting Donald Trump:
Exclusive:
Britain will refrain from criticising the US over the capture of Maduro amid concerns about angering Donald Trump
The UK will not make any assessment on whether the action is lawful. If the issue is pushed to a vote at the UN Security Council the UK will abstain
The…
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) January 5, 2026
Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace was quick to slam the Government’s claims.
The Government is misleading the media with such a briefing. Lawyers in every department will make an adjudication in cases of Justice, defence exports, intelligence sharing, trade licensing. They have done this even with Ukraine. Ministers need to come clean. @Steven_Swinford
— Rt. Hon Ben Wallace (@BenWallace70) January 5, 2026
Trump has also threatened Mexico, Colombia, and Greenland. The latter is even a NATO ally.
But the truth is, one-time big-shot human rights lawyer Starmer seems determined to carry on his role as Donald Trump’s bag carrier – whatever the cost. You do not have to be a fan of Maduro to recognise that the US has just carried out an act of colonialist frontier justice. And that the implications of the Caracas kidnapping may come to be terrible indeed.
The best thing that could happen now is that the UK have the guts to resist Trump’s impulses. And one way to send that signal – apart from some basic condemnation – would be to remove UK personnel from American warships.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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