The deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Monday afternoon on drugs and weapons charges after his extraordinary capture by US special forces this weekend.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized in a shocking pre-dawn raid at a compound on Saturday during an assault on Caracas. At least 40 people, including civilians and Venezuelan military members, reportedly died in the attack.
Footage from New York early on Monday showed Maduro and wife being led by armed officers, handcuffed and dressed in beige, to a helicopter to transfer them from a detention centre in Brooklyn to a court appearance in Manhattan.
The US president, Donald Trump, has called the weekend attack on Venezuela, in which Maduro was deposed and captured, a “brilliant operation” and has suggested it could be a blueprint for other countries in Latin America, primarily Colombia.
In New York, charging papers against Maduro allege that he headed a “corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking”.
The arrests came after months of US pressure against Maduro, which included attacks on alleged “narco boats”. These boat strikes resulted in at least 110 deaths and some legal experts have questioned whether the strikes are tantamount to war crimes.
In the weeks leading up to this attack, the US also seized oil tankers that were under sanctions off Venezuela’s coast. Trump established a blockade against other such vessels, further constraining the oil-rich country’s already flagging economy.
Maduro’s son and three others are also charged in the indictment. Maduro, who was indicted during Trump’s first presidency, faces charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Trump, who previously vowed to avoid foreign wars, said the US would control Venezuela for the time being. “We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind,” he added.
US forces do not control Venezuela, and Maduro’s government still appears to be running the country, headed by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is being sworn in on Monday.
While Trump has warned he is not afraid to put “boots on the ground”, he said he was “dealing with the people who just got sworn in”. Speaking to the Atlantic, Trump said on Sunday: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
After first denouncing Maduro’s capture as a kidnapping, Rodríguez said on Sunday she was willing to work with Washington. She is the daughter of a leftist guerrilla fighter and was close to Maduro, but is also known as a pragmatist with private sector connections.
“We invite the US government to work together on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez said.
Trump also said the US would take control of Venezuela’s oil industry. “We’re going to have our very large US 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 and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so.”
Speaking onboard Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump suggested that the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, might be next to be attacked, saying he was a “sick man who likes making cocaine”, adding: “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.” Asked by a reporter if he was talking specifically about a US operation, Trump replied: “Operation Colombia sounds good to me.”
A similar operation against Cuba might not be necessary, Trump said, as the country’s government was “ready to fall” by itself. Separately, he said that while he “liked” the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, the country needed “to get their act together” on drug smuggling or the US would attack the cartels.
As for Greenland, the Danish territory Trump has long coveted for its strategic location in the Arctic, Trump said: “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
Top Democrats have condemned Trump’s attack on Venezuela, calling it illegal and contrary to US interests. The US constitution mandates that only Congress has the power to declare war. Presidents must seek approval for military operations from Congress under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
“They literally lied to our face,” the Democratic Connecticut senator Chris Murphy said on Sunday. He was referencing a briefing on Venezuela given to Congress by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in December. “The message they sent was that this wasn’t about regime change … They said this is just a counter-narcotics operation.”
