One woman was killed and her daughter was injured by an alleged U.S. airstrike on a TV and telephone antenna in El Volcán, in the municipality of El Hatillo, in the state of Miranda, Venezuela at 1 a.m. on January 3, 2026. The airstrikes reportedly occurred during US operations to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

@Ewalds6 reported that a citizen had been killed in an attack on an antenna in El Volcán, Oripoto. Local Venezuelan and Colombian sources later identified the victims as 45-year-old Colombian businesswoman and street vendor Yohana Rodríguez Sierra, who was killed, and her daughter 22-year-old Colombian nurse Ana Corina Morales Sierra.

El Universal News referred to Yohana as a “single mother who, with her love, effort, and daily work, raised her three children in Venezuela, where she had lived for several years”. Ana, a relative of Yohana (not her daughter), told El Universal that “Yohana was a good, hardworking, noble, cheerful, and resilient woman. She spent her time traveling between Caracas and Colombia. She was born here but always sought new opportunities, which is why she settled in Venezuela many years ago. At the time of her death, she was living in a large house on a farm in the municipality of El Hatillo, in the state of Miranda. There were television and telecommunications antennas there, and they were the first ones the U.S. planes bombed. It was 1:00 a.m. when Yohana heard the explosion. She was sleeping with her 22-year-old daughter, Ana Corina, and they were frightened, so they ran out of the house into the yard. That’s when a missile hit them.” According to relative Ana, Ana Corina called her family members in Colombia and told them “They’re killing us, they killed my mom, I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t think we’ll ever see each other again” adding that Ana Corina was taken to the hospital where “now she’s out of danger”.

A relative of the owners of a residence connected internally to the “repeater towers” told El Pitazo that “Yohana, whom we love dearly, decided to go out and see what was happening in El Volcán. Her daughter asked her not to leave, but she insisted on going because she was determined to take pictures of what was happening.” Yohana had reportedly arrived at the site of the antenna as a second missile struck the location, and she was hit in the chest by projectiles which caused her death. Her daughter was treated at Dr. Domingo Luciani Hospital in El Llanito for her injuries and was later discharged.

Additional relatives told El Universal that tragically “we will have to watch her funeral via live stream, by phone, because we cannot repatriate her body since it was a war-related death. It is very sad for her two children who live in Spain and Cali (Colombia) because they will not be able to enter Venezuela since there is no access at the moment.” Another relative mentioned that Yohana and Ana Corina had not been to Colombia in two years but planned a trip for December, which got postponed to February, to celebrate Ana Corina’s graduating from nursing school. Images included in the reporting show Yohana wearing a black and grey striped dress, and posing with her daughter in graduation attire, likely indicating the image was taken shortly before the incident.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro made statements about the victims on Twitter/X, writing “in the bombings, they murdered a Colombian mother, the mother of her daughter, Ana, a nurse. She sold things in the streets of Caracas. A native of Cartagena”.

Venezuelan journalist @DarvinsonRojas posted images for Reuters which show a severely damaged home, with mention that “the house is located in the vicinity of a transmission tower that was one of the targets of the operation.” Additional images from Reuters include the same home with two people hugging in the foreground, identified as Maikel Linares, nephew of Carlos Bracho, and family member Yine Barón. Carlos told Reuters that the airstrikes had destroyed a TV and telephone tower which collapsed onto their home, killing and injuring his neighbors and damaging the home.

Local journalists including @nachomdeo posted images showing fire illuminating the sky in a residential area and the location of the images was geolocated to be the “Antenas El Volcán” (communications antennas) in Caracas by @trbrtc who provided the coordinates,

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the attack to the U.S. military. While @petrogustavo referred to a “bombing” occurring, Infobae News stated that an “American missile” had struck the area.