CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has traveled to the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in a daring overnight military operation that President Donald Trump said would deprive the United States of “governance” of the South American country and use its vast oil reserves to sell to other countries.
Maduro landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in Upstate New York after a middle-of-the-night operation that took him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home on a military base in the capital Caracas — an act Maduro’s government called “imperialistic.” The couple face US charges of involvement in a narco-terrorist conspiracy.
The dramatic action capped an intense pressure campaign by the Trump administration against Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive US action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts have raised questions about the legality of the operation, which was carried out without congressional approval. Meanwhile, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez demanded that the United States free Maduro and he called him the rightful leader of the country as its national supreme court appointed its interim president.
Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who did not give a number. Trump said some US forces were injured but no one was killed.
Watch the video of Maduro getting off the plane at Stewart Air National Guard Base:
Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to use the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “a lot” of oil to other countries.
After arriving at a small airport in the Hudson Valley town of Newburgh, N.Y., Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armored car, was waiting to take him to a nearby US Drug Enforcement Administration office.
A video posted on social media by the White House account showed Maduro smiling as he was escorted through the office by two DEA agents who grabbed his hands.
Trump says US will ‘run the country’
The Trump administration touted the takedown as a move to reduce the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a commanding stake in the country and greater control over oil.
Trump has claimed that the US government will help lead the country, and has already done so, although there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state television broadcast pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast live footage of supporters taking to the streets of Caracas to protest.
“We’re going to run the country until we’re able to make a safe, orderly, judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He boasted that this “extraordinarily successful operation should serve as a warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or threaten American lives.”
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were charged with narco-terrorism in a 2020 conspiracy, and the Justice Department issued a new indictment of Maduro and his wife on Saturday that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the US with cocaine. The US government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.
The Trump administration has spent months building up U.S. forces in the region and carrying out attacks on ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly transporting drugs. Last week the CIA was behind a drone strike in a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels – the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US campaign began in September.
Early morning attack
The operation in Venezuela, which took place 36 years to the day after the surrender and seizure of Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following the 1990 US invasion, unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday morning. Trump said the US had turned off “almost all the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months and learned everything about Maduro – where he was and what he ate, as well as details about his pets and his clothes.
“We think, we develop, we train, we try, we report, we try again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to make sure we can’t get it wrong.
Several explosions were heard that morning and low-flying planes swept over Caracas. Maduro’s government has accused the United States of targeting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and calling on citizens to take to the streets. Explosions – at least seven explosions – they sent people into the streetswhile others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.
US government restrictions on airspace around Venezuela and the Caribbean expired early Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on an announcement that suggested any further immediate major US military action was unlikely. “Airlines are being notified and are quickly updating their plans,” he wrote.
Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. But Rodríguez stressed during an appearance on state television on Saturday that she had no plans to take power until Venezuela’s top court ordered her to become interim president.
“There is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”
Some streets in Caracas are filling up
Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez took office, promising to uplift poor people and later carry out what he calls a socialist revolution.
Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His re-election in 2018 was widely seen as a fraud, as the main opposition parties were barred from running. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after the polls closed, but the opposition rallied overwhelming evidence that he lost by a margin of more than 2:1.
Venezuela’s capital remained unusually quiet on Sunday, with only a few vehicles moving around and shops, gas stations and other businesses closed. The road, which was usually packed with joggers, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts on Sundays, had only a handful of people exercising the day after Maduro was ousted.
The presidential palace was guarded by armed civilians and members of the military. Only a sweeper and a soldier were standing in the nearby square, and across the street, for the second day in a row, a church remained nearby.
Caracas resident David Leal arrived at the lot where he parks vehicles for a living, only to quickly realize he probably won’t see any clients the next day.
“People are still shaken,” said Leal, 77.
Questions of legality remain
Whether the United States had broken any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday morning. “There are a number of international legal concepts that the United States could violate by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.
Pope Leo XIV, who last month expressed concern over growing threats by the United States to intervene militarily in Venezuela, sounded the alarm during his Sunday noon blessing, saying the good of the Venezuelan people must prevail over all else. The first American pope in history called for an end to violence and the guarantee of Venezuela’s sovereignty.
In New York, the UN Security Council, acting at Colombia’s urgent request, planned to hold a meeting Monday morning on US operations in Venezuela.
Lawmakers of both American political parties have raised reservations and unequivocal objections to US attacks on ships suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not authorized 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 to justify Trump’s strike on Venezuela without congressional approval and demanded immediate information from the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and the legal rationale behind this decision.”
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