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Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are awaiting arraignment on federal charges in the Southern District of New York after a U.S. military operation led to their capture in Venezuela. CBS News’ Natalie Brand has the latest.
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Missed the second half of the show? Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Tom Cotton, Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Chris Van Hollen join.
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Venezuela’s military said it recognizes Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as the country’s acting leader after Nicolas Maduro was extracted from Caracas by U.S. forces on Saturday.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez issued a statement endorsing a Supreme Court ruling that appointed Rodriguez as acting president for 90 days.
Rodriguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president.
President Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. had been in touch with Rodriguez and that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
Rodriguez faced U.S. sanctions during Mr. Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.
On Saturday night, Rodriguez called Maduro’s capture during a daring overnight U.S. military operation “barbaric” and an “illegal and illegitimate kidnapping.” In a speech broadcast on state TV, she said the U.S. actions were an attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty and demanded the “immediate release” of Maduro and his wife.
Rodriguez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters.
“Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations,” she said, referring to the Trump administration. “It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).”
Mr. Trump issued an apparent threat against Rodriguez, telling The Atlantic in an article published Sunday that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that the conversations with Rodriguez and the Venezuelan government “are delicate and complicated things that require mature statesmanship, and that’s what we intend to do.”
“But our goals remain the same,” he said. “The difference is that the person who was in charge, even though not legitimately in the past was someone you could not work with. We just could not work with him.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, arrived in New York on Sunday. They will face charges face federal charges related to drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies.
A video posted on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through that office by two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents grasping his arms.
In his televised statement on Sunday, Padrino Lopez also said that some of Maduro’s bodyguards were killed “in cold blood” during the U.S. raid. He did not give an exact figure of casualties.
Venezuelan authorities have not yet given an official toll for people hurt or killed in the US operations. Mr. Trump said Saturday that some U.S. forces were injured, but none were killed.
Padrino Lopez also urged Venezuela’s citizens to resume normal activities “of all kinds, economic, work and education, in the coming days.”
“The homeland must follow its constitutional course,” he said.
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CARACAS, Venezuela — Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will appear in Manhattan federal court Monday for arraignment on a four-count indictment that charged him with leading a 25-year narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked Maduro from power and removed him from the country, President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American nation and its autocratic leader, and months of secret planning resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Watch President Trump’s full address following strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro and his wife.
Legal experts immediately raised questions about whether the operation was lawful, and Venezuela’s vice president demanded in a speech that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader.
Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.
“We’re going to run the country,” Trump said following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro and his wife, seized overnight from their home on a military base, were first taken aboard a U.S. warship on their way to face prosecution for a Justice Department indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. A plane believed to be carrying the deposed leader landed Saturday evening in New York.
A person in custody was escorted off the jet, gingerly making his way down a stairway before being led across the tarmac surrounded by federal agents. Several agents appeared to film the person on their phones.
Photos obtained by ABC News show a handcuffed Maduro being escorted by Drug Enforcement Administrator Terry Cole and other federal agents after landing in New York.
After arriving at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, Maduro was taken by helicopter to New York City and then to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The legal authority for the incursion, done without congressional approval, was not immediately clear, but the Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.
Trump claimed the U.S. government would help run the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate signs of that. Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference where he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, that painted the regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, details the U.S. military’s mission in Venezuela
Trump posted a photo on social media showing Maduro wearing a sweatsuit and a blindfold on board the USS Iwo Jima.
President Trump posted a photo on Truth Social allegedly showing Venezuelan President Maduro after his capture, writing, “Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima.”
The operation followed a monthslong Trump administration effort to push the Venezuelan leader, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels – the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
Maduro had decried prior military operations as a thinly veiled effort to topple him from power.
Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday as Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in the capital city of Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro – where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”
Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the U.S. of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets.
The assault lasted less than 30 minutes, and the explosions – at least seven blasts – sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard. Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured but none were killed.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.
Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without electricity.
Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. But Rodriguez stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power. She called for Maduro’s release and pronounced him president.
“There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros,” she said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York.
Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.
Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
In a demonstration of how polarizing a figure Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture and celebrate it.
At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro’s return.
“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here, Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”
Earlier, armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party.
In other parts of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Some areas remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn’t sleep.”
In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”
Eleazar Saldivia was forced to flee Venezuela after political pressure and death threats.
Some legal experts raised immediate concerns about the operation’s legality.
The U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning, according to a council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting not yet made public.
Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast. Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”
Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
ABC News contributed to this report
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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CARACAS, Venezuela — President Donald Trump’s plan to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it after capturing President Nicolás Maduro in a raid isn’t likely to have a significant immediate impact on oil prices.
Venezuela’s oil industry is in disrepair after years of neglect and international sanctions, so it could take years and major investments before production can increase dramatically. But some analysts are optimistic that Venezuela could double or triple its current output of about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day to return to historic levels fairly quickly.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky has the latest on what lies ahead for Maduro.
“While many are reporting Venezuela’s oil infrastructure was unharmed by U.S. military actions, it has been decaying for many many years and will take time to rebuild,” said Patrick De Haan, who is the lead petroleum analyst at gasoline price tracker GasBuddy.
American oil companies will want a stable regime in the country before they are willing to invest heavily, and the political picture remained uncertain Saturday with Trump saying that the United States is in charge, while the current Venezuelan vice president argued, before Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, that Maduro should be restored to power.
“But if it seems like the U.S. is successful in running the country for the next 24 hours, I would say there would be a lot of optimism that U.S. energy companies could come in and revitalize the Venezuelan oil industry fairly quickly,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group.
And if Venezuela can grow into an oil production powerhouse, Flynn said “that could cement lower prices for the longer term” and put more pressure on Russia.
Oil isn’t traded over the weekend, so there wasn’t an immediate impact on prices. But a major shift in prices isn’t expected when the market does reopen. Venezuela is a member of OPEC so its production is already accounted for there. And there is currently a surplus of oil on the global market.
Venezuela is known to have the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves of approximately 303 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That accounts for roughly 17% of all global oil reserves.
So international oil companies have reason to be interested in Venezuela. Leading companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday. ConocoPhillips spokesperson Dennis Nuss said by email that the company “is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments.”
Chevron is the only one with significant operations in Venezuela, where it produces about 250,000 barrels a day. Chevron, which first invested in Venezuela in the 1920s, does business in the country through joint ventures with the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA.
But even with those massive reserves, Venezuela has been producing less than 1% of the world’s crude oil supply. Corruption, mismanagement and U.S. economic sanctions saw production steadily decline from the 3.5 million barrels per day pumped in 1999 to today’s levels.
The problem isn’t finding the oil. It’s a question of the political environment and whether companies can count on the government to live up to their contracts. Back in 2007, then President Hugo Chávez nationalized much of the oil production and forced major players like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips out.
“The issue is not just that the infrastructure is in bad shape, but it’s mostly about how do you get foreign companies to start pouring money in before they have a clear perspective on the political stability, the contract situation and the like,” said Francisco Monaldi, who is the director of the Latin American energy program at Rice University.
But the infrastructure does need significant investment.
“The estimate is that in order for Venezuela to increase from one million barrels per day – that is what it produces today – to four million barrels, it will take about a decade and about a hundred billion dollars of investment,” Monaldi said.
Venezuela produces the kind of heavy crude oil that’s needed for diesel fuel, asphalt and other fuels for heavy equipment. Diesel is in short supply around the world because of the sanctions on oil from Venezuela and Russia and because America’s lighter crude oil can’t easily replace it.
Years ago, American refineries on the Gulf Coast were optimized to handle that kind of heavy crude at a time when U.S. oil production was falling and Venezuelan and Mexican crude was plentiful. So refineries would love to have more access to Venezuela’s crude because it would help them operate more efficiently, and it tends to be a little cheaper.
Boosting Venezuelan production could also make it easier to put pressure on Russia because Europe and the rest of the world could get more of the diesel and heavy oil they need from Venezuela and stop buying from Russia.
“There’s been a big benefit for Russia to see Venezuela’s oil industry collapse. And the reason is because they were a competitor on the global stage for that oil market,” Flynn said.
But Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was a national security official in the George W. Bush administration, said seizing control of Venezuela’s resources opens up additional legal issues.
“For example, a big issue will be who really owns Venezuela’s oil?” Waxman wrote in an email. “An occupying military power can’t enrich itself by taking another state’s resources, but the Trump administration will probably claim that the Venezuelan government never rightfully held them.”
But Waxman, who served in the State and Defense departments and on the National Security Council under Bush, noted that “we’ve seen the administration talk very dismissively about international law when it comes to Venezuela.”
___
Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien and Ben Finley contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Hundreds gathered outside the White House after the U.S. military removed President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela.
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Hundreds protest military action in Venezuela at White House
Nine hours after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military launched a military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture and removal of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, hundreds gathered outside the White House.
The protest, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, attracted a diverse group of people from the D.C. region, including Modesto King.
“I thought I was gonna get a heart attack this morning when I watched the news,” said King. “It’s not for the United States government to tell them who is legitimate or not.”
King, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, said he wondered how many Latin American presidents the U.S. would remove from power.
Solyana Bekele shares that concern. The 24-year-old from Alexandria said whoever the U.S. doesn’t like becomes a dictator.
“All of a sudden, now we’re talking about narcoterrorism, and how that’s somehow attacking the U.S. sovereignty, and that’s being used as an excuse,” said Bekele.
Not everyone at Lafayette Square was as supportive of Maduro as many of the protesters.
Bryan, who lives in Maryland, pointed to the protesters and gave his thoughts.
“He’s a criminal, and he murdered people. He imprisoned people, political people who stood up against him,” said Bryan. “If these people want to criticize the Trump administration, why not move to a communist country like North Korea, China or Venezuela?”
On the other side of that argument was Kathy Boylan, 82, who said she believes those claims are a lie.
“First of all, it hasn’t been proven in court,” said Boylan. “Why don’t they go to court, honestly?”
As speakers addressed the crowd, watching close by was Malcolm, a former member of the Air Force who was holding a sign that read “Veterans Against War.”
“I saw the escalation we’ve been doing over the past couple weeks and months, but kidnapping another country’s leader is a new step for me,” said Malcolm.
Many protesters held signs that read “No Blood For Oil,” which was a major concern for D.C. resident Mary Pat Rowan.
“Venezuela does have enormous oil resources, and Trump would like to get at them. That’s what we did in Iraq, and that was wrong there, and I think we know it now,” said Rowan.
Standing near the White House gates was Jennifer Stancil, who was also holding a sign that read: “No War!!! Impeach, Convict, Remove. Congress do something!”
“They’ve been attacking these boats, and they’ve been doing this stuff and they’ve been trying to justify it. You think about if somebody did that to us, how upset we would be?,” said Stancil.
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The Trump administration’s capture of Venezuela’s president and claims that it will “run” the country are raising stark new questions about the legality of the U.S. actions and its future operations in the South American nation.Related video above: U.S. strikes Venezuela, captures President Maduro in overnight operationThe middle-of-the-night seizure of Nicolás Maduro, who was transported with his wife on a U.S. warship to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in New York, is beyond even the most high-profile historical examples of aggressive American actions toward autocratic governments in Panama, Iraq and elsewhere, legal experts said. It came after a surprise U.S. incursion that rocked the Venezuelan capital with overnight explosions.”This is clearly a blatant, illegal and criminal act,” said Jimmy Gurule, a Notre Dame Law School professor and former assistant U.S. attorney.The stunning development caps months of aggressive U.S. military action in the region, including the bombing of boats accused of trafficking drugs and seizures of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela. The Trump administration has conducted 35 known boat strikes against vessels, killing more than 115 people since September, and positioned an armada of warships in nearby waters.The bigger debate than legality is yet to come, said John Yoo, an early architect of the George W. Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.”It’s easier to remove a dictator,” he said, based on his experience in the Iraq War. But ensuring the transition to a stable democratic government is “the harder part.”Maduro’s arrest on anniversary of Noriega’s surrenderMaduro’s arrest came 36 years to the date of the surrender of Panama’s strongman, Manuel Noriega, a notable milestone in American involvement in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989 to arrest Noriega on drug trafficking charges.In Panama, however, U.S. national security interests were directly at stake in the form of the Panama Canal as well as the safety of American citizens and U.S. military installations in the country.Video below: Former Alabama exchange student reacts to Maduro captureBy contrast, Congress has not authorized any American military strike or law enforcement move against Venezuela.”The President will claim that this fits within a vast body of precedent supporting broad executive power to defend the United States, its citizens, and its interests,” Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was a national security official in the Bush administration, said by email. “Critics will charge that this exceeds the bounds of presidential power without congressional authorization.”While U.S. agents have a long history of snatching defendants abroad to execute arrest warrants without authorization, federal courts have long deferred to the White House in foreign policy and national security matters.For example, U.S. bounty hunters, working under the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in 1990 abducted in Mexico a doctor accused of killing DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.”Courts give great deference to the president on issues related to national security,” said Gurule, who led the prosecution against Camarena’s killers. “But great deference does not mean absolute deference and unfettered authority to do anything.”Congress has yet to authorize or ban US actionsTrump’s administration has declared the drug cartels operating from Venezuela to be unlawful combatants and has said the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to an administration memo obtained in October by The Associated Press.The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the U.S. amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force. That is a new rationale for past and future actions.Congress, which has broad authority to approve or prohibit the president’s war powers, has failed to do either, even as lawmakers from both political parties grow increasingly uneasy with the military actions in the region, particularly after it was revealed that U.S. forces killed two survivors of a boat attack with a follow-up strike.Congress’ Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, demanded immediate briefings for the “gang of eight” leaders on Capitol Hill, which includes top members of the Intelligence committees, as well as for other lawmakers. Congressional leaders were not notified of the actions until after the operation was underway.”The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” Schumer said. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, said the entire operation — the boat strikes as well as the apprehension of Maduro — clearly violates international law.”Lawyers call it international armed conflict,” Schmitt said. “Lay people call it war. So as a matter of law, we are now at war with Venezuela because the use of hostilities between two states clearly triggers an internal armed conflict.”War powers vote aheadHouse Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the administration “is working to schedule briefings” for lawmakers next week.Republican lawmakers in Congress largely welcomed the capture of Maduro as ridding the region of a leader they say is responsible for drug trafficking, but Democratic lawmakers warned that in veering from the rule of law, the administration is potentially greenlighting other countries such as China or Russia to do the same.”Beyond the legality, what kind of precedent does it send?” asked Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said in an interview that the rebuilding plan ahead has echoes of the Iraq War as the Trump administration promises to use Venezuela’s oil revenue to pay the costs.Waxman, the Columbia University law professor, said seizing control of Venezuela’s resources opens up additional legal issues: “For example, a big issue will be who really owns Venezuela’s oil?”The Senate is expected to try again next week to curtail Trump’s actions, with a vote expected on a bipartisan war powers resolution that would block using U.S. forces against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he is grateful for the armed forces “who carried out this necessary action.” He said he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and wants more information.”I look forward to receiving further briefings from the administration on this operation as part of its comprehensive counternarcotics strategy when the Senate returns to Washington next week,” Thune said.Rubio said at a briefing Saturday with Trump that because of the nature of the surprise operation, it was not something that could be shared beforehand with the lawmakers.Goodman reported from Miami.
The Trump administration’s capture of Venezuela’s president and claims that it will “run” the country are raising stark new questions about the legality of the U.S. actions and its future operations in the South American nation.
Related video above: U.S. strikes Venezuela, captures President Maduro in overnight operation
The middle-of-the-night seizure of Nicolás Maduro, who was transported with his wife on a U.S. warship to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in New York, is beyond even the most high-profile historical examples of aggressive American actions toward autocratic governments in Panama, Iraq and elsewhere, legal experts said. It came after a surprise U.S. incursion that rocked the Venezuelan capital with overnight explosions.
“This is clearly a blatant, illegal and criminal act,” said Jimmy Gurule, a Notre Dame Law School professor and former assistant U.S. attorney.
The stunning development caps months of aggressive U.S. military action in the region, including the bombing of boats accused of trafficking drugs and seizures of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela. The Trump administration has conducted 35 known boat strikes against vessels, killing more than 115 people since September, and positioned an armada of warships in nearby waters.
The bigger debate than legality is yet to come, said John Yoo, an early architect of the George W. Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“It’s easier to remove a dictator,” he said, based on his experience in the Iraq War. But ensuring the transition to a stable democratic government is “the harder part.”
Maduro’s arrest came 36 years to the date of the surrender of Panama’s strongman, Manuel Noriega, a notable milestone in American involvement in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989 to arrest Noriega on drug trafficking charges.
In Panama, however, U.S. national security interests were directly at stake in the form of the Panama Canal as well as the safety of American citizens and U.S. military installations in the country.
Video below: Former Alabama exchange student reacts to Maduro capture
By contrast, Congress has not authorized any American military strike or law enforcement move against Venezuela.
“The President will claim that this fits within a vast body of precedent supporting broad executive power to defend the United States, its citizens, and its interests,” Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was a national security official in the Bush administration, said by email. “Critics will charge that this exceeds the bounds of presidential power without congressional authorization.”
While U.S. agents have a long history of snatching defendants abroad to execute arrest warrants without authorization, federal courts have long deferred to the White House in foreign policy and national security matters.
For example, U.S. bounty hunters, working under the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in 1990 abducted in Mexico a doctor accused of killing DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
“Courts give great deference to the president on issues related to national security,” said Gurule, who led the prosecution against Camarena’s killers. “But great deference does not mean absolute deference and unfettered authority to do anything.”
Trump’s administration has declared the drug cartels operating from Venezuela to be unlawful combatants and has said the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to an administration memo obtained in October by The Associated Press.
The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the U.S. amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force. That is a new rationale for past and future actions.
Congress, which has broad authority to approve or prohibit the president’s war powers, has failed to do either, even as lawmakers from both political parties grow increasingly uneasy with the military actions in the region, particularly after it was revealed that U.S. forces killed two survivors of a boat attack with a follow-up strike.
Congress’ Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, demanded immediate briefings for the “gang of eight” leaders on Capitol Hill, which includes top members of the Intelligence committees, as well as for other lawmakers. Congressional leaders were not notified of the actions until after the operation was underway.
“The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” Schumer said. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”
Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, said the entire operation — the boat strikes as well as the apprehension of Maduro — clearly violates international law.
“Lawyers call it international armed conflict,” Schmitt said. “Lay people call it war. So as a matter of law, we are now at war with Venezuela because the use of hostilities between two states clearly triggers an internal armed conflict.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the administration “is working to schedule briefings” for lawmakers next week.
Republican lawmakers in Congress largely welcomed the capture of Maduro as ridding the region of a leader they say is responsible for drug trafficking, but Democratic lawmakers warned that in veering from the rule of law, the administration is potentially greenlighting other countries such as China or Russia to do the same.
“Beyond the legality, what kind of precedent does it send?” asked Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said in an interview that the rebuilding plan ahead has echoes of the Iraq War as the Trump administration promises to use Venezuela’s oil revenue to pay the costs.
Waxman, the Columbia University law professor, said seizing control of Venezuela’s resources opens up additional legal issues: “For example, a big issue will be who really owns Venezuela’s oil?”
The Senate is expected to try again next week to curtail Trump’s actions, with a vote expected on a bipartisan war powers resolution that would block using U.S. forces against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he is grateful for the armed forces “who carried out this necessary action.” He said he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and wants more information.
“I look forward to receiving further briefings from the administration on this operation as part of its comprehensive counternarcotics strategy when the Senate returns to Washington next week,” Thune said.
Rubio said at a briefing Saturday with Trump that because of the nature of the surprise operation, it was not something that could be shared beforehand with the lawmakers.
Goodman reported from Miami.
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CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago-area leaders are speaking out after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife amid strikes in country overnight.
The action has drawn mixed reaction. Some people were celebrating as others gathered Saturday evening at a protest downtown Chicago.
Democrats are condemning the attack and capture of Maduro, because they say it was done without congressional approval, while Republicans are applauding the action, deeming it a win in the war on drug trafficking.
The entirety of Federal Plaza in the Loop was packed with large crowds of protesters pushing back against the Trump administration. They say this is another unnecessary act of war while demanding an end to the use of tax payer dollars for international affairs.
The fiery crowd in downtown Chicago spoke out against the U.S. attacks on Venezuela as President Maduro and his wife were taken into custody by U.S. forces. Anti-war activists say the U.S. has been down this road before.
A large protest was held dowtown Chicago after President Donald Trump said the U.S. attacked Venezuela and captured Pres. Nicolás Maduro.
“Whether it’s Saddam Hussein in Iraq or the Taliban in Afghanistan, Panama, Libya , you name it… whenever the U.S. attacks another country like this, it’s the people of those countries who suffer the most,” said Andy Thayer with the Chicago Committee Against War and Racism.
While many Venezuelan nationals are happy to see the regime removed, there are growing concerns in the Chicago area over how all of this was carried out as Congress was not notified of the operation.
“An open violation of international and U.S. law, invading a sovereign country, kidnapped their president, kidnapped their first lady, and call this just,” Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said.
Protesters continue to demand the Trump administration to focus on issues in the U.S.
“The people of Chicago oppose this because our public infrastructure is underfunded it’s failing we don’t have social programs people are facing homelessness,” said Caeli Kean, Anti-War Committee of Chicago Co-Chair. “And meanwhile are tax payer dollars are going to bomb people in Venezuela.”
RELATED | US Republicans largely back Trump on Venezuela action, US Democrats decry it as unjustified
President Trump said Saturday that a team of U.S. officials will help run Venezuela during this transition.
Thomas Mockaitis, a history professor at DePaul University, is worried about the precedent this sets for other international affairs.
“If the United States can get away with doing this, how do we look Vladimir Putin in the eye and say, ‘You can’t invade another country. You can’t replace somebody just because you don’t like him,’” Mockaitis said. “He’s gonna look at us and say, ‘Why can’t we?’”
Political leaders in Illinois and Indiana are weighing in on the overnight strike in Venezuela and capture of the country’s ousted leader. Democrats are saying the attack was done without Congress’ knowledge or approval.
Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL) serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“To be clear, there has been no communication from the [Trump] administration. The [Trump] administration did not notify anyone in Congress,” Rep. Schneider said. “We’ve been trying to understand what the attacks in the Caribbean and the Atlantic were about. If they were about drug smuggling, this is a president who just pardoned one of the most serious drug traffickers in the world.”
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said in a statement, “Nicolas Maduro repeatedly denied the will of the Venezuelan people,” but went on to say the Trump administration “MUST provide briefings for all Members of Congress as soon as possible this week.”
Durbin’s Indiana counterparts, Republican senators Jim Banks and Todd Young, are supporting the military operation.
Banks said “Maduro turned Venezuela into a narco-state. A drug cartel posing as a government and killing Americans. Let this be a warning to every narcoterrorist in the Western Hemisphere,” while Young said “This should be an opportunity to bring Maduro to justice for his many crimes and a day of new hope for the Venezuelan people.”
Both Illinois and Indiana governors are split on the strike, too.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is calling the military action “unconstitutional,” saying it puts American troops, “in harm’s way with no long-term strategy.”
Indiana Governor Mike Braun says he stands with President Trump, saying that, “Indiana families have paid too high a price for the deadly drugs pushed by criminal regimes.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker posted the following statement on social media:
“Donald Trump’s unconstitutional military action in Venezuela is putting our troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy.
“The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s military action in Venezuela violates international law and dangerously escalates the possibility of full-scale war. The illegal actions by the Trump administration have nothing to do with defending the Venezuelan people; they are solely about oil and power.
“As we have said for the past two years, the dehumanization of migrants from Venezuela, and of immigrants generally, by the Far Right has laid the groundwork for military action in Central and South America. I strongly condemn the Trump administration’s inhumane treatment of migrants in our country and this illegal regime change abroad.
“In Chicago, we will continue to uphold the values of peace, diplomacy, and mutual respect for all people.”
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) posted the following statement on social media:
“Nicolás Maduro repeatedly denied the will of the Venezuelan people, including when two thirds of them voted for an end to decades of political & economic ruin and criminality.
“However, I disagree with President Trump’s use of U.S. military forces without Congressional approval & worry deeply about this Admin’s follow through on foreign policy interventions.
“The Trump Admin MUST provide briefings for all Members of Congress as soon as possible this week.”
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement:
“The American people believed Donald Trump when he promised on the campaign trail that he would get our nation out of foreign wars, but this morning we awoke to another stark reminder that he is-and has always been-a liar who has never cared about keeping his promises. The Constitution requires the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, to authorize any President to engage in acts of war-because they will be the ones to live with the consequences of the decision-and it is unacceptable for this President to deny them that responsibility.
“While Trump-whose love of country is best measured by the number of times he dodged the draft during Vietnam-may believe that war is ‘like watching a TV show’ as he said this morning, he has never understood or appreciated that the true costs of war are measured not only in dollars and cents, but in the blood, sweat and sacrifices of our troops and our military families. Sadly, our troops understand all too well just how costly it can be when our nation engages in war without a plan for what comes next, destabilizing an entire region.
“Donald Trump’s reckless and unconstitutional operations in Venezuela-including this morning’s arrest of a foreign leader-are not about enforcing law and order because if they were, he wouldn’t hide them from Congress. Maduro was unquestionably a bad actor, but no President has the authority to unilaterally decide to use force to topple a government, thrusting us and the region into uncertainty without justification, a defined end-state or a real plan for preventing the instability that could come next. His actions continue putting American troops, personnel and citizens at risk both in the region and around the globe. None of that serves our nation’s interests.”
Indiana Governor Mike Braun posted the following statement on social media:
“By arresting Nicolás Maduro, POTUS is cutting off narcoterrorism at the source and helping save Hoosier lives. Indiana families have paid too high a price for the deadly drugs pushed by criminal regimes, and we stand with President Trump in holding them accountable.”
U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) posted the following statements on social media:
“I commend the bravery and professionalism of U.S. personnel who carried out a successful mission in Venezuela. This should be an opportunity to bring Maduro to justice for his many crimes and a day of new hope for the Venezuelan people. I look forward to hearing more about the Administration’s plans for a positive transition in the days ahead.”
“I appreciate POTUS briefing the American people this morning about the successful operation in Venezuela. We still need more answers, especially to questions regarding the next steps in Venezuela’s transition. As Congress returns to Washington next week, I am eager to work with members of the Trump Administration to bring clarity to the situation.”
U.S. Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) posted the following statements on social media:
“Maduro turned Venezuela into a narco-state. A drug cartel posing as a government and killing Americans. Let this be a warning to every narcoterrorist in the Western Hemisphere. President Trump is doing exactly what Americans elected him to do, protect America and keep our people safe.”
“Proud of our brave service members who got the job done and sacrifice everyday to keep America safe. The United States military is the strongest fighting force on Earth. God bless our troops.”
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Maher Kawash
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President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the country” early Saturday, confirming what he described as a large-scale U.S. strike that prompted swift condemnation and concern worldwide.
A CIA source inside Venezuela’s government helped the U.S. track Maduro’s location, CBS News learned. Following reports of explosions and low-flying aircraft in the country’s capital, Maduro was eventually captured at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex located in Caracas, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press.
Satellite imagery below shows before and after the U.S. strikes at Fuerte Tiuna.
Satellite images from Vantor on Dec. 22 shows an overview of Fuerte Tiuna military complex showing buildings and equipment prior to strike damage.
Maxar via Getty
Maxar via Getty 
Maxar via Getty 
Satellite images from Vantor shows damage to vehicles and equipment at Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas after strikes on Jan. 3.
Maxar via Getty 
Maxar via Getty 
Maxar via Getty 
U.S. officials told CBS News that the operation to capture Maduro was carried out by the Army’s Delta Force, an elite special operations unit.
The helicopters that descended on Maduro’s compound came under fire, said Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but U.S. forces and the FBI eventually entered the compound. Maduro and his wife “gave up” and were taken into custody, Caine said.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr. Trump said the United States would temporarily oversee Venezuela during a transition period and would work to restore oil production. He also said that Maduro tried to escape during his capture.
“He was trying to get into a safe place,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “The safe place is all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.”
In addition to the main military base that was hit, David Smolansky, a spokesman for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, told CBS News the following locations were also hit by U.S. strikes: La Carlota, the main airbase in Caracas; El Volcán, signal antenna; and La Guaira Port, a seaport on the Caribbean coast.
Maduro is expected to face federal charges in the United States related to drug trafficking and alleged ties to gangs designated as terrorist organizations — claims he has denied. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday announced a superseding indictment similar to one filed against Maduro in 2020.
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With less than two weeks before the Georgia Legislative Session begins, State Rep. Ruwa Romman got the 2026 portion of her pre-primary campaigning started. At Manuel’s Tavern on Saturday night, Romman was joined by her staff and a couple of dozen people in a back room of the bar to kick off her “Georgia We Deserve” campaign tour.
Campaign literature rested on all of the tables. One card began with, “As Governor, Ruwa Will….”, while others listed her priorities and goals. Romman made her way from table to table, meeting and greeting supporters. It is now five months since the gubernatorial primary will take place on May 5. There’s no better time than the present to be campaigning.
On one of the TVs in the room, CNN’s broadcast of the invasion of Venezuela, and the kidnapping of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, his wife, and son, played on a loop.
American politics was back on a Saturday night in Atlanta.
“Movement building is not polished. We can flip our state, one door at a time,” Romman said. “I can’t thank y’all enough for being here tonight.”
Romman is running against experienced politicians, but the people will decide who represents the Democratic Party, and the diversity of Atlanta’s voters was on display at Manuel’s on Saturday night.
Following the interview, Romman took questions from the audience about investments in public education, improving public transportation, how to volunteer for her campaign, strengthening union rights, ICE, raising minimum wage without accelerating inflation, and sustainable farming.
On ICE, Romman said, “I would start with working to repeal House Bill 1105,” Romman said. “Immigration is a federal issue, but there are state issues we can pursue.”
On access to better mental healthcare, Romman said, “What if instead of spending our money on private prisons, we spend it on mental healthcare?, she said.
“Keep the faith because this is going to be a long-term project,” Romman told the crowd at the end of the event. “I’m telling y’all, this is how you build it, like this. I promise you, Georgia is absolutely worth it.”
Romman told The Atlanta Voice that her campaign tour will continue to include small gatherings like the one that took place at Manuel’s. Small venues, such as coffee shops, and even walks along the Atlanta Beltline, will be future locations.
“I think right now, with people feeling more isolated because of the algorithm, there’s a clear need to be with people,” said Romman. She was one of many local politicians who greeted the two dozen Buddhist monks, led by Bhikkhu Pannakara, who had embarked on a 2,300-mile Walk for Peace, which included a passage through Georgia.
The “Georgia We Deserve” tour continues. Immediately after the event, a line of supporters formed in front of Romman to take selfies with her and ask more questions. Romman said the door-knocking and hands-on approach will continue. Romman said the concept of speaking face-to-face with voters will be at the forefront of the campaign.
“By being here tonight, you all have proved our point,” Romman said.
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Donnell Suggs
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Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base, just north of New York City, on Saturday afternoon, hours after their capture during a daring U.S. military operation in Caracas.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured overnight from their home in Caracas. They were transported to the USS Iwo Jima warship before being flown to New York to face criminal charges. The couple could be arraigned as soon as Monday, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Maduro arrived at Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, at about 8:52 p.m. ET on Saturday. He was not slated to be housed in his own wing as of Saturday evening. His wife’s confinement status as of Saturday night is unknown.
MDC is one of the few detention centers in the U.S. with the capacity for high-security defendants. It is known for housing other high-profile defendants like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Jeenah Moon / REUTERS
In a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York against Maduro, members of his family and his cabinet, the U.S. is accusing the South American leader of conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and to import cocaine. He is also accused of possession of and conspiracy to possess “Machineguns and Destructive Devices,” according to the indictment unsealed Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said.
The charges appear to be the same as those that were filed in a 2020 indictment of Maduro and several key aides.
The indictment, prepared by New York U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, says: “For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” before alleging that Maduro “is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”
The U.S. government also claimed that Flores is involved in her husband’s alleged crimes. According to the indictment, Flores allegedly brokered a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, Nestor Reverol Torres, and allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007.
The trafficker arranged a bribe to Reverol Torres — $100,000 per flight — to ship cocaine, prosecutors allege. Reverol Torres was indicted in 2015 by U.S. prosecutors in New York.
In the indictment filed against Maduro in 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that the Venezuelan leader and other senior Venezuelan government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to traffic cocaine and weapons to the U.S.
Maduro has in the past denied the accusations against him.
Hours after the operation, President Trump said the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
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After Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture, President Trump said “we’re going to run the country” for now. Charlie D’Agata reports on the operation.
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Erik Prince, in an interview on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” talked about the military operation to strike Venezuela and capture Nicolas Maduro
ERIK PRINCE: The phrase the president was looking for was speed, surprise, and violence of action. And US forces definitely delivered. Certainly a magnificent job. It’s truly the most refined, decisive kinetic action operation organization I think the world has ever seen. You know, back after the debacle of Desert One and the Iran hostage attempt, a rescue attempt in 79, when Congress created SOCOM, it was done to create the money and the focus to have this kind of capability, absolutely apex predator, go anywhere in the face of whatever surface-to-air missile, air defense networks, whatever. Remember, Caracas is at about 3,500 feet.
So you got to go from sea level up a mountain plateau into this bowl and hit a lot of targets simultaneously. And they did. The targeting and the intelligence to do this was spectacular.
I also must add, I’m extremely glad to see that they bombed Chavez’s grave as an extra FU to the cancer of socialism that is infected Venezuela. As I said on your show a few weeks ago, you can vote in socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it. And for the people of Venezuela that voted a year ago, July, in free elections, and it was stolen, Maduro lost by 40 points, F him.
I’m glad he’s in New York. I hope there’s some other bad people that they have to take out. Díaz-Rodrigo Cabello, Pedrino, the Minister of Defense, Jorge Indelce Rodriguez, Díaz-Rodrigo Cabello, they all have to go.
And then Venezuela has a chance at breathing free. This is not going to require US occupation or anything else, but it took away the inevitability of the regime. And to see people breaking out and protesting in celebration all across Venezuela is a very, very great sign.
BANNON: And also in Chile. So what we’re going to do to walk through this, there’s a huge geopolitical, and is there going to be stability or civil war, we’re going to get to all that. But I want to focus on just the military strike part of it, which is a capability that is extraordinary. This is breathtaking, being a young naval officer and being there for the workup for Desert One. They don’t run things back then, what they run today is a totally different deal. This is absolutely breathtaking.
You combine the end of the 12 day war with that strike, including from the Navy submarines, you add this, the American people have to understand now, the geopolitics of it, strategically, what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen in Venezuela, we’re gonna get to all that. Mike Davis is going to join us about the legality, there already are on Trump about that. We’re gonna cover it all. But just the mechanics of the capability of can you do it? No military in the world. It’s breathtaking what our troops, what our sailors, Marines, special forces have done.
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Erik Prince, War Room
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U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar speaks during a joint press conference with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, and Rep. Carlos Gimenez in Doral, Florida, as they discuss the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, January 3, 2026.
adiaz@miamiherald.com
What to know about the U.S. military action in Venezuela and the removal of leader Nicolas Maduro.
Republican U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar waited years to speak the words “Nicolás Maduro has been captured.” The trio finally got the chance Saturday evening after the leader of Venezuela was deposed by U.S. armed forces in an overnight raid, using a joint press conference to thank President Donald Trump and project hope for a new, democratic future in the South American nation.
Exactly what that future will look like, and when it will take shape remains cloudy. Trump earlier Saturday said his administration would run the country “until such time as a proper transition can take place.” And he suggested he might be willing to work with Maduro’s vice president.
The three South Florida representatives — key voices in politics given the region’s large Venezuelan community — said they support letting Venezuelans choose their next leader. They said they’re hopeful that will lead to a presidency by Maria Corina Machado, a political leader that earlier Saturday Trump suggested is unfit for the job.
“There will be a new world order,” Giménez told reporters gathered outside Díaz-Balart’s office in Doral, the heart of the U.S. Venezuelan community. “It will be a world order that is bounded by and guided by the principles of liberty and democracy, not tyranny, communism and socialism.”
Early Saturday morning, the United States carried out a large-scale military strike against Venezuela’s socialist regime and captured the strongman Maduro, who was flown out of the country along with his wife. The couple face charges in the United States of running an international drug cartel out of Caracas. The pair arrived Saturday afternoon at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York, where they are expected to appear in federal court in the coming days.
READ MORE: Trump says Maduro captured, flown out of Venezuela after U.S. strikes shake Caracas
Díaz-Balart said Saturday night that he “was convinced that the tyranny in the anti-American, narco-terrorist regime in Venezuela, the tyranny in Cuba and also the tyrannical dictatorship in Nicaragua would not survive another four years” with Trump as president in the United States.
“What we are seeing is that the first of those tyrannies has not survived President Trump,” he said. “The next two? Their days are also [numbered].”
Trump said earlier Saturday the United States will have a large role in running Venezuela until a political transition occurs.
“We are going to run the country until such time as we can see a proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
READ MORE: Trump’s deal to ‘run’ Venezuela after Maduro’s capture sidelines Machado, focuses on oil
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro, was sworn as the country’s new president hours after his capture. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Rodríguez on Saturday, and suggested his administration is willing to work with her to facilitate a transition to a new, post-Maduro government.
Trump remarked that Rodríguez is “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
On opposition leader Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the most visible faces of the anti-Maduro movement, Trump said he did not believe she had the Venezuelan people’s support.
“I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said, referring to Machado. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Díaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar, however, said Saturday they want to see the Trump administration facilitate a transition to a government led by someone from outside Maduro’s inner circle. They gave strong support for Machado stepping in as president.
“We know there is an opposition that has been organized by Maria Corina and her party, and they are a legitimate force inside Venezuela,” Salazar said. “So we are supporting her, and we are supporting everything that the opposition forces, on the civil side, decide to do.”
Díaz-Balart said he expects the transition to a new government in Venezuela will be done through democratic means.
“I’m convinced that when there are elections — whether there are new elections or there is a decision to take the old elections, the last election — that the next democratically elected president of Venezuela is going to be Maria Corina” Machado, he said.
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Devoun Cetoute
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Hours after President Donald Trump stunned the world by saying the US plans to “run” Venezuela, uncertainty over what that means and who is in charge loomed over the South American nation.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was an indicted prisoner on a flight bound for New York by the time his Vice President Delcy Rodríguez — who Trump said would partner with Washington to “make Venezuela great again” — denounced the intervention as “barbaric” and a “kidnapping.”
Adding to the confusion was that the White House offered few details about what running an oil-producing nation of about 30 million people would entail. A US official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who has spent his career criticizing Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez — would take the leading administration role.
For now, there’s no plan spelled out to have American troops or administrators in Venezuela. But Trump signaled he’s keenly focused on the country’s petroleum, saying the US would have a “presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.” That could mean a greater role for Chevron Corp., which still operates in Venezuela under waivers from sanctions, as well as for other major American oil companies.
Trump’s resistance to keeping American boots on the ground and his dismissal of Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a “nice woman” not ready to take power suggest he decided on giving Rodríguez and other Maduro loyalists a second chance over full-blown regime change. Maduro was in US custody in Manhattan by Saturday evening, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity.
Trump is “essentially trying to control the vice president and people around her through carrots and sticks to get the outcomes the United States wants,” said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. “We’ll see if it works.”
Trump appeared to confirm that approach with his remarks later in the day to the New York Post, when he said that US troops on the ground would not be necessary as long as Rodríguez “does what we want.”
That strategy is a huge gamble — particularly for a president who campaigned in 2016 on ending America’s “forever wars” but has since used the US military to strike targets in Iran, Yemen, Nigeria and the Caribbean Sea.
Venezuela has suffered through decades of mismanagement that eroded the country’s oil infrastructure, sparked prolonged bouts of hyperinflation and saw millions of economic and political migrants flee for neighboring countries and the US. A total collapse of the government sparked by the early morning US strike risks causing even more turmoil.
Rodríguez, considered by many to be the most powerful person in the country after Maduro, gave mixed messages in her public comments on Saturday. She called for the ousted president’s return, but she also said Venezuela could still have “respectful relationships,” perhaps offering a path to a detente with the US if she can consolidate power and the two sides cooperate.
Trump warned of a potential second wave of American attacks if that cooperation isn’t forthcoming.
“All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them, and it will happen to them” if they weren’t “fair” to the Venezuelan people, he said.
In the short term — and barring a breakdown of governance — the administration’s move could offer it the opportunity to help revive Venezuela’s decaying oil industry, something that Trump seemed particularly focused on when he announced Maduro’s capture.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said. In the same news conference, he said, “We’re going to make sure that that country is run properly.”
A multiyear recovery of Venezuelan oil production could entail a 4% decline in global oil prices over time, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Economics. That would help the US president address the affordability concerns voters have, but energy analysts added that it could take years for Venezuela’s oil industry — plagued by mismanagement, corruption and sanctions — to recover.
“Both upside and downside scenarios have significant implications for Venezuela’s outlook, debt markets, global oil supply, and the US standing in the region and the world,” Bloomberg Economics analyst Jimena Zuniga wrote.
Following the Trump news conference, a US official laid out some priorities for the coming days, saying that administration officials will engage diplomatically with those remaining in the Venezuelan government, as well as with oil executives on expanding output. The official said the US military will remain ready and the oil embargo will remain in effect. US strikes on suspected drug vessels will continue.
Yet the uncertainty over what really happens next hung over Caracas as it settled into its first night without Maduro in more than a decade, with many of his regime’s loyal backers still in the country.
That reality, and Delcy Rodríguez’s long history with Maduro, are “why I’m a bit skeptical this can work out long term,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
All day long, Venezuelans lined up outside grocery stores and gas stations amid worries about the nation’s future.
“A bigger concern really would be that this all falls apart here, that there isn’t an effort to make sure there’s a successful handoff,” said Matt Terrill, managing partner at Firehouse Strategies.
While Trump sought to project optimism, the military maneuver recalled past US efforts at regime change that yielded mixed results.
Under President George W. Bush the US invaded two countries, Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and Iraq, to depose Saddam Hussein, in 2003. Both conflicts and the insurgencies they spawned mired the US in bloody and costly occupations for years. Frustration over those deployments and the messy Afghanistan withdrawal helped propel Trump to the presidency twice.
It’s now a legacy he — and perhaps Rubio, a potential 2028 presidential candidate — risks taking on.
“This is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning,” CSIS’s Berg wrote on Saturday. “Venezuela will enter a long transition with even greater U.S. involvement in shaping the government to come.”
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Catherine Lucey, Eric Martin, Jamie Tarabay, Bloomberg
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told “CBS Evening News” that the United States’ intervention into Venezuela and the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, is the “exact opposite” of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
“We spent decades and decades and purchased in blood, and got nothing economically in return, and President Trump flips the script,” Hegseth told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil.
Maduro was captured by U.S. forces and brought to New York on Saturday to face drug trafficking charges. Hegseth was among the senior Trump administration officials who oversaw the overnight U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to Maduro’s capture.
President Trump said earlier Saturday that “we’re going to run the country” until there is a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of power in Venezuela, but he provided few details about what that may look like. Mr. Trump said the U.S. would “get the oil flowing.”
Hegseth said that through strategic action, the U.S. can ensure it has access to “additional wealth and resources, enabling a country to unleash that without having to spend American blood.”
“I mean, this was a bold and audacious move, but it was thought through,” Hegseth said. “It was well orchestrated. Our military had time to set it up, to provide the resources, and then he took that bold stroke. And through it, we flipped that very dynamic, and Americans will benefit.”
Hegseth told CBS News that the United States can help both the people of Venezuela and America in the Western Hemisphere by reestablishing the Monroe Doctrine — which established the tenets of U.S. foreign policy — with “peace through strength with our allies.”
“And I think the hemisphere, I know the hemisphere will benefit from President Trump’s bold action,” Hegseth said.
When asked what’s next in terms of other American adversaries around the world and what message this sends to other countries, Hegseth said it shows that Mr. Trump is a “president of action.”
“This is a president of action, and you don’t get peace in this dangerous world without strength,” Hegseth said. “So, all around the world to take notice, American leadership is back — when he says something matters, it does, and we will take the necessary action with the full weight of the Department of War.”
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Washington — President Trump’s announcement Saturday that the United States will “run” Venezuela after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife is raising new questions about the extent of U.S. involvement in the South American country.
Mr. Trump did not offer many details about his administration’s plans for the U.S. role in Venezuela as he spoke about the overnight mission from his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The president had announced on social media hours earlier that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were “captured and flown out of the country.” Officials told CBS News that the operation was carried out by the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special operations unit.
Maduro and his wife were brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges stemming from what prosecutors have alleged is their participation in a conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and to import “thousands of tons” of cocaine to the U.S. Maduro and his wife arrived at Stewart Airport just north of New York City on Saturday afternoon, hours after their capture.
With Maduro’s ouster, it’s unclear who is in charge in Venezuela or could lead the nation in the future. Mr. Trump said it would be “very tough” for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to take over because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
The president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio also had a conversation with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who Mr. Trump said has been “sworn in” and is “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
But in remarks on state television, Rodriguez said Maduro is the “only president of Venezuela” and demanded his release.
Venezuela held its last presidential election in July 2024, but election authorities did not provide detailed vote counts, and the U.S. and many European countries rejected Maduro’s claim of victory. The U.S. under the Biden administration recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the president-elect. González fled into exile in Spain in September 2024 after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. is “going to run the country” until there is a “safe, proper and judicious transition” in power in Venezuela.
“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We’ve had decades of that. We’re not going to let that happen,” the president said. “We’re there now. And what people don’t understand, but they understand as I say this, we’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.”
He did not provide any additional details about how the U.S. would oversee Venezuela, under what authority, or whether the U.S. would play a role in picking a new leader.
Mr. Trump did indicate that top administration officials — including Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared alongside Mr. Trump on Saturday — would work with a “team” working with the Venezuelan people. He did not, however, say who would be included in that group.
In an interview Saturday evening, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth what that may look like.
“It means we set the terms. President Trump sets the terms. And ultimately, he’ll decide what the iterations are of that,” Hegseth said. “But, it means the drugs stop flowing, it means the oil that was taken from us is returned, ultimately, and that criminals are not sent to the United States.”
When asked about a timeframe for U.S. involvement, Mr. Trump said Venezuela’s “whole infrastructure” has to be rebuilt. He focused in particular on the prospect of rebuilding the oil industry in a nation with one of the world’s largest petroleum reserves.
“If we just left, it [Venezuela] has zero chance of ever coming back,” he said. “We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela, and the biggest beneficiary is going to be the people of Venezuela.”
When asked about the blockade of sanctioned oil from Venezuela imposed by Mr. Trump last month, Hegseth said no oil is going in or out of the country, and the U.S. military is still poised in the Caribbean.
“[Mr. Trump] said it clearly at the podium today. We are going to get American companies in there. We are going to get investment in there. These oil depots have been operating at 20% capacity. That’s going to change,” Hegseth told CBS News.
While the Trump administration has removed Maduro, top members of his government remain in place. Among them are Rodríguez, who Maduro selected as his vice president, as well as Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Cabello is named as a defendant alongside Maduro and his wife in the superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in New York as allegedly part of the narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Seemingly in a warning to Venezuelan officials who remain in place, Mr. Trump said the U.S. is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack” in Venezuela if needed, and that his administration is “not afraid of boots on the ground.”
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What will it look like for the U.S. to run Venezuela? In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said: “President Trump sets the terms.”
“It means we set the terms. President Trump sets the terms. And ultimately, he’ll decide what the iterations are of that,” Hegseth said. “But, it means the drugs stop flowing, it means the oil that was taken from us is returned, ultimately, and that criminals are not sent to the United States.”
Mr. Trump said earlier Saturday that “we’re going to run the country” until there is a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of power in Venezuela, but he provided few details about what that may look like.
Hegseth was among the top Trump administration officials who oversaw the overnight U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro. He called it “the most sophisticated, most complicated, most successful joint special operations raid of all time.”
Dokoupil asked whether the administration would seek Congress’ approval for a full-scale intervention to stabilize Venezuela. Hegseth called Maduro’s capture a law enforcement exercise and said Secretary of State Marco Rubio “was clear there that this is not something you notify Congress about beforehand.” But he said if there are more extensions to this, “of course we will keep Congress involved.”
Without going into details about what the Trump administration’s next steps are in Venezuela, Hegseth emphasized American interest in Venezuelan oil, the security of the Western hemisphere and stopping drug trafficking.
“What was done by Venezuela against American oil interests and oil companies is well understood and it never should have happened and President Trump is willing to recapture that,” Hegseth said.
When asked about the blockade of sanctioned oil from Venezuela imposed by Mr. Trump last month, Hegseth said no oil is going in or out of the country, and the U.S. military is still poised in the Caribbean.
“[Mr. Trump] said it clearly at the podium today. We are going to get American companies in there. We are going to get investment in there. These oil depots have been operating at 20% capacity. That’s going to change,” Hegseth told CBS News.
Ultimately, Hegseth said, both Americans and Venezuelans can benefit from U.S. interventions.
“What happens next will be in the hands of Venezuelans to decide but ultimately America will benefit security wise, and with prosperity, we believe the Venezuelan people can as well,” he said.
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When Ana Gil García heard about the United States’ capture of Venezuela’s president, she felt a sense of cautious optimism.
But the cofounder of the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance said she knows the future of the country and her son who lives in Caracas hang in the balance. She’s also wary of a foreign government intervening in the South American country. Venezuelans should decide their own destiny, she said.
“We don’t know what could be the immediate consequences to the country,” Gil said. “What we know is that we cannot accept civilians being killed … we are against any intervention in which civilians will suffer more than what they have already suffered.”
The Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning brought up complicated emotions for some Venezuelan community leaders. Some groups and elected officials categorically opposed the stunning operation, calling it government overreach. Others, like Gil, said there’s some hope in being rid of a leader most human rights organizations describe as a dictator.
The U.S. flew Maduro out of Venezuela in an extraordinary military operation that plucked a sitting leader from office. Maduro and his wife arrived in New York to face prosecution by the Justice Department after a grand jury indicted them on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.
President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. government would run the country at least temporarily and would tap Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to sell “large amounts” to other countries. The legal authority for the operation was not immediately clear, though the Trump administration described it — and earlier deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea — as necessary to stem the flow of dangerous drugs.
Gov. JB Pritzker, however, called it an “unconstitutional military action” in a statement, and said Trump is putting troops in danger with “no long-term strategy.”
“The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds gathered downtown Saturday evening to protest the operation. Carrying signs that said, “No War on Venezuela,” and chanting, “No war, no coup, Donald Trump shame on you,” protesters criticized American “forever wars.” They also said it’s immoral for the government to profit from Venezuelan oil.
“Every single time the United States attacks another country, regardless of what the political color of that regime in power, the people of those countries suffer immeasurably,” activist Andy Thayer said.
“However impoverished they were before, they were greatly more impoverished afterwards,” he added.
In addition to Pritzker, several local elected officials condemned the action. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth called it “reckless and unconstitutional,” while Mayor Brandon Johnson said it “violates international law” and “dangerously escalates the possibility of full-scale war.”
“As we have said for the past two years, the dehumanization of migrants from Venezuela, and of immigrants generally, by the Far Right has laid the groundwork for military action in Central and South America,” Johnson said in a statement.
About 50,000 Venezuelan migrants have arrived in Chicago over the last several years as they fled political turmoil and extreme poverty in their home country. The Supreme Court last year allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections for thousands of these migrants, some of whom were arrested in recent immigration enforcement operations.
Gil said, if anything, she hopes the military action helps people understand why swaths of immigrants fled Venezuela for better opportunities in the United States.
“When we left the country, we didn’t leave because we wanted to,” Gil said. “The people were forced to.”
Several Republicans had a more favorable reaction to the operation. Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman from Illinois, for example, said Maduro was never a “legitimate president” and that removing him without a massive military occupation is “how it should be done.”
“This was the right call,” he said on social media. “May Maduro face justice and the people of Venezuela be free.”
Luciana Díaz, the CEO of Panas en Chicago, a nonprofit that supports Venezuelan migrants, also said in a statement that they’re “deeply hopeful and encouraged for our community and for our country, after 28 years of dictatorship that forced thousands of Venezuelans many of whom are now asylum-seekers to rebuild their lives in cities like Chicago.”
“We have witnessed firsthand the human impact of this prolonged crisis. We trust that this moment will mark the beginning of a transition toward democracy, justice and the reunification of Venezuelan families,” Díaz said.
“God is with us. We continue to wait for a peaceful and genuine transition,” she added.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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Rebecca Johnson, Hope Moses
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