U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that he was placing Venezuela under temporary American control after U.S. forces captured President Nicolas Maduro in what administration officials described as a high-risk overnight raid, flying him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
“We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press 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.”
Trump said the takeover would include allowing major U.S. oil companies to begin operating in Venezuela — which holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves — and to rehabilitate its deteriorating energy infrastructure. Industry analysts cautioned that rebuilding capacity could take years.
Critics said Trump’s repeated references to oil at the briefing raised questions about his administration’s insistence that Maduro’s capture, and a series of deadly missile strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels, were primarily part of a law-enforcement effort targeting narcotics flows to the United States.
According to Trump, the overnight operation triggered power outages in parts of Caracas and included strikes on military facilities before U.S. Special Forces apprehended Maduro in or near one of his safe houses.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were first transferred to a U.S. Navy ship positioned offshore before being flown to the United States on Saturday evening.
Video showed a plane arriving at Stewart International Airport, about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of New York City, with U.S. personnel boarding after landing.
A Justice Department official confirmed that Maduro had arrived in New York, and later footage showed a large security convoy pulling into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn under heavy police escort.
Maduro, who had been indicted on multiple U.S. counts including narco-terrorism conspiracy, is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, the Justice Department official said. Flores also faces drug-related conspiracy charges.
How the United States intends to administer Venezuela remains unclear. U.S. forces do not control Venezuelan territory, and Maduro’s government still appears to be operating inside the country, with no indication it intends to cooperate.
Trump did not specify who would govern once the United States steps back from control.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, described domestically as Maduro’s likely successor, appeared on Venezuelan state television alongside senior officials, denouncing what she called a kidnapping.
“We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said, calling Maduro “the only president of Venezuela.” A Venezuelan court later ordered Rodriguez to assume the role of interim president.
In Washington, several legal scholars questioned the legitimacy of seizing the head of a foreign state, while Democratic lawmakers — who said they were not fully briefed — demanded clarity on the administration’s long-term plans.
Potential Power Vacuum
Across Venezuela, streets remained largely calm on Saturday, though soldiers patrolled several areas and small groups of Maduro supporters gathered in Caracas.
Others welcomed the development. “I’m happy, I doubted for a moment that it was happening because it’s like a movie,” said merchant Carolina Pimentel, 37, in the city of Maracay.
At the press conference, where Trump was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, he declined to provide detailed answers to questions about how the United States would run Venezuela while its domestic government and armed forces remain active.
“The people that are standing right behind me” — including Rubio and Hegseth — would oversee the country, Trump said.
He also said he was open to deploying American troops into Venezuela. “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said.
Maduro’s removal — after more than 12 years in power and frequently accused by opponents of authoritarian rule — could create a political vacuum in the oil-rich nation bordering Colombia, Brazil, Guyana and the Caribbean.
Trump ruled out cooperation with opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, widely viewed as Maduro’s strongest rival.
Trump said the United States had not been in contact with Machado, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he said.
Recalling Past Interventions
Trump’s comments about a potentially open-ended U.S. presence in Venezuela evoked memories of American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which concluded with withdrawals after long, costly occupations.
He said on Saturday that during his presidency, including his first term, U.S. military actions had been “only victories.” None of those, however, involved the removal of a foreign leader.
Trump had previously criticized regime-change wars, calling the Iraq invasion “a big fat mistake” during a 2016 debate and saying in 2021 that he was “especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars.”
The United States had not carried out a comparable intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to depose Manuel Noriega, who was accused of running a drug-trafficking network.
Washington has leveled similar allegations at Maduro, accusing him of presiding over a “narco-state” and rigging the 2024 election.
Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver chosen by Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied the accusations and argued that Washington seeks control of Venezuela’s oil resources.
Trump’s move drew comparisons to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which asserted U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere, and to the early-20th-century era of “gunboat diplomacy” under President Theodore Roosevelt.
Trump acknowledged the historical parallels, suggesting a modern reinterpretation might be dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine.”
While a number of Latin American governments oppose Maduro and claim he stole the 2024 election, Trump’s statements about controlling Venezuela and tapping its oil revived long-standing unease over past U.S. actions in the region.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei praised what he described as Venezuela’s new “freedom,” while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said it crossed “an unacceptable line.”
Russia and China, both key allies of Caracas, criticized the U.S. move.
“China firmly opposes such hegemonic behaviour by the U.S., which seriously violates international law, violates Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean,” China’s foreign ministry said.
Political Risks at Home
Trump said a U.S. occupation “won’t cost us a penny,” arguing that expenses would be repaid from revenue generated by Venezuela’s oil — a point he returned to throughout the briefing.
That argument echoed claims made before the 2003 Iraq war, when U.S. officials said Iraqi assets would offset the cost of intervention. Later academic estimates place the ultimate U.S. cost of the conflict at no less than $2 trillion.
Trump’s heightened focus on foreign affairs gives Democrats new grounds for criticism ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, when control of both chambers — currently held narrowly by Republicans — is at stake.
Polls indicate that voters are most concerned about high prices and domestic economic pressures rather than international policy.
The move could also test Trump’s support among voters drawn to his “America First” message and skeptical of overseas military involvement.
Reflecting those frustrations, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently broken with Trump, wrote on social media, “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong.”
