CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Maduro landed Saturday evening at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital city of Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who didn’t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none were killed.

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.

Trump says US will ‘run the country’

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 lead the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state TV aired pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast 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. 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, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration 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.

The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying 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. campaign began in September.

Early morning attack

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.

Gen. Dan Caine, 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.”

Multiple explosions rang out that morning, and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the United States of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets. 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.

Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. Rodríguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela’s high court ordered that she become interim president.

“There is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

Some streets in Caracas fill 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 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 Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture, while others celebrated 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!”

In other parts of the city, the streets were empty hours after the attack.

“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared. Many families couldn’t sleep.”

In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”

Questions of legality

linger

Whether the United States violated any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.

In New York, 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. That was according to a council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting not yet made public.

Lawmakers from both American political parties have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not 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.”

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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.

The U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife on Saturday is reviving memories of the dramatic 1989 takedown of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, which coincidentally took place 36 years ago to the day of Maduro’s Jan. 3 capture.

Under former President George H.W. Bush, U.S. forces launched a surprise invasion of Panama in the early hours of Dec. 20, 1989, accusing Noriega of conspiring with drug traffickers to funnel cocaine into America. 

He had also faced allegations of manipulating the country’s 1989 presidential election.

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“The goal was to restore the democratically elected government of Guillermo Endara and arrest Noriega on drug trafficking charges,” the U.S. Army’s website states. “At the time, Operation Just Cause was the largest and most complex combat operation since the Vietnam War.”

Similarly to Saturday’s operation involving Maduro, the Panama invasion proceeded without explicit authorization from Congress, according to Axios. 

Noriega’s capture, however, unfolded over several weeks as he evaded arrest by taking refuge inside the Vatican’s embassy in Panama City.

U.S. troops used psychological warfare to force Noriega out of hiding.

In a tactic known as Operation Nifty Package, military vehicles with loudspeakers blasted non-stop rock music with a playlist that included songs by The Clash, Van Halen and U2, BBC News reported.

Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces Jan. 3, 1990, 36 years to the day before the U.S. capture of Maduro, and was flown to America to stand trial, Axios reported.

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The operation resulted in the deaths of 23 U.S. service members and left 320 others wounded. The Pentagon estimated that roughly 200 Panamanian civilians and 314 Panamanian military personnel were killed, according to The Associated Press.

In 1992, Noriega was convicted on drug trafficking charges in a Miami federal court and received a 40-year prison sentence.

He was granted prisoner-of-war status, housed in a separate bungalow away from other inmates and was allowed to wear his Panamanian military uniform and insignia in court, the AP reported.

WASHINGTON POST PRAISES TRUMP’S VENEZUELA OPERATION AS ‘UNQUESTIONABLE TACTICAL SUCCESS’

After serving 17 years in a U.S. prison, he was extradited to France and later Panama. He died in 2017.

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country as part of Operation Absolute Resolve.

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In recent months, the U.S. military has carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug vessels allegedly liked to the Venezuelan regime in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. 

Until a permanent leader can be found, the U.S. government will “run” Venezuela, Trump said, “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”