Closing summary
It’s just passed 1.45am in Caracas and 12.45am in New York and we’re about to shut this blog and continue our live coverage on another file here. We also have a full report on the US’s audacious capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, as well as an analysis by our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour. Below is a recap of the latest – thanks for reading.
Donald Trump said after the military operation early on Saturday that the US would “run” Venezuela and warned on Sunday that the US might launch a second strike if the government’s remaining members did not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”.
Venezuelan vice-president and Maduro ally Delcy Rodríguez has been appointed acting president and offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration in what could be a major shift in relations between the governments.
In a conciliatory message on Instagram on Sunday she said she hoped to build “respectful relations” with Trump.
“We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez said.
Trump had earlier warned that if Rodríguez didn’t fall in line, “she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro”.
In other key developments:
Rodríguez announced a commission to seek the release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a court appearance on Monday on drug charges.
Top officials in Maduro’s government called the seizure of Maduro and his wife a kidnapping. “Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” interior minister Diosdado Cabello said.
Trump’s administration described Maduro’s capture as a law-enforcement mission to force him to face US criminal charges filed in 2020, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied criminal involvement.
Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, reportedly said his father’s supporters were more resolved than ever to support Maduro and the ousted president would return. “We will take to the streets, we will convene the people.”
Trump suggested Colombia and Mexico could also face military action if they did not reduce the flow of illicit drugs to the US, saying: “Operation Colombia sounds good to me.”
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed stunned Venezuelans. The operation was Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
Venezuelan defence minister Gen Vladimir Padrino said on state television the US attack killed soldiers, civilians and a “large part” of Maduro’s security detail “in cold blood”. Venezuela’s armed forces had been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.
The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid.
The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay said in a joint statement the US actions “constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population”.
All EU countries except Hungary issued a statement calling for restraint by “all actors” and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in order to “restore democracy”.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said Britain was not involved in the attack but refused to condemn it. British cabinet minister Darren Jones – a close ally of Starmer – called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”.
Trump suggested the US would not push for immediate elections to install a new government but rather would work with remaining members of the Maduro administration to clamp down on drug trafficking and overhaul its oil industry. He said US oil companies needed “total access” to the country’s vast reserves.
Hundreds of Chavismo supporters gathered in Caracus on Sunday to demand the release of Maduro and Flores.
With news agencies
Updated
Asked whether he would condemn the US action in Venezuela, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to wait to “establish the facts” and speak to Trump, but insisted the UK would “shed no tears” over the end of Maduro’s regime.
However, some of his own MP’s have been more outspoken, criticising America’s actions as a breach of international law.
Labour MP Kim Johnson questioned whether “we as a country still stand for international law and sovereignty”, while her colleague Richard Burgon described Starmer’s statement as “shameful and reckless”.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that “effectively our country has been rendered up as a Trump colony”, accusing the Government of “prevarication”.
In a post on X, Labour MP Clive Lewis said of the US action: “A clear breach of the Nuremberg principles - which the UK helped write.
“Now a [Labour Government] won’t even defend them. This silence isn’t diplomacy. It’s the moral equivalent of a white flag.”
Few in Caracas are celebrating as they face an uncertain post-Maduro future
There was a whirlwind of emotions on the streets of Caracas on Sunday, 24 hours after the first-ever large-scale US attack on South American soil.
“Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama.
“Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker from Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro.
Leandro voiced shock as the couple waited in a 100-person queue to buy flour, milk and butter alongside a quartet of nuns. “Who could have imagined that his would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked.
“If I thought it would improve the country I’d welcome it,” Leandro added, as shoppers were allowed into the overcrowded supermarket in small groups. “But I don’t believe this will happen. If they wanted peace, this isn’t the way to achieve it.”
More now on the announcement from the Cuban government that 32 of its country’s nationals were killed in the US operation in Venezuela over the weekend.
According to a statement read on Cuban state TV on Sunday night, military and police officers were in the country at the request of Venezuela’s government. Former president and revolutionary leader Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel sent condolences to their families. The names of the dead and the positions they held were not immediately disclosed by Cuban authorities.
Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela’s government and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, pointed to Cuban involvement in Venezuela over the weekend, saying that Maduro’s internal security apparatus was headed by Cubans and that they were “propping up Maduro.”
“All the guards that help protect Maduro — this is well known — their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans,” Rubio said.
Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez has announced a commission to seek the release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Rodríguez tapped her brother Jorge, president of the National Assembly, and Foreign Minister Yvan Gil to co-chair the commission. Information Minister Freddy Nanez will also be on the commission, according to the announcement.
Asian stocks have risen in Monday trading, while oil prices fluctuated, as investors weighed the impact of the US ouster of Nicolás Maduro.
The Venezuelan president’s removal will add to geopolitical risk on global markets, but traders appear to have chosen to focus on the long-running artificial intelligence boom and hopes for more US interest rate cuts.
Oil shifted between gains and losses after the US strikes on Caracas. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and more Venezuelan crude in the market could exacerbate oversupply concerns and add to recent pressure on prices.
Trump has said the US will send companies to fix the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure. But analysts say that alongside other major questions about the South American country’s future, substantially lifting its oil production will not be easy, quick or cheap.
Venezuela’s president was captured, flown to the US and is now facing trial in New York. What does the audacious ouster of Nicolás Maduro’s mean for the country – and the world?
Find out in our podcast here:
More on Donald Trump’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One: the president said elections in Venezuela would have to wait.
“We’re going to run it, fix it, we’ll have elections at the right time, but the main thing you have to fix is it’s a broken country,” he said.
Trump had harsh words for other US adversaries, saying Colombia’s leader was “not going to be doing it very long”, Communist-ruled Cuba was “ready to fall” and that Iran’s leadership would be “hit hard” if protesters were killed, AFP reports.
Trump earlier threatened that acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodriguez would pay a “big price” if she did not cooperate with the US.
Trump says second Venezuela strike possible and US 'in charge' of country
Donald Trump has said the US might launch a second military strike on Venezuela after President Nicolás Maduro’s capture if remaining members of the government did not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”.
Trump also insisted to reporters aboard Air Force One that the US was “in charge” of Venezuela after the weekend ousting but was also dealing with the new leadership in Caracas.
“We’re dealing with the people who just got sworn in,” the US president was quoted as saying when asked if he had spoken to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez. “Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer and it’ll be very controversial.”
Pressed on what he meant, Trump said: “It means we’re in charge.”
Trump said Rodriguez might pay a bigger price than Maduro “if she doesn’t do what’s right”, according to the Atlantic magazine.
The Trump administration has said it is willing to work with the rest of Maduro’s government as long as Washington’s goals are met, particularly opening Venezuela’s oil reserves to US investment.
Asked whether the operation was about oil or regime change, Trump replied: “It’s about peace on Earth.”
Updated
More now on Delcy Rodriguez’s call for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the US: Venezuela’s acting president also said that its relations with Washington should be based on “sovereign equality and non-interference”.
“These principles guide our diplomacy with the rest of the world,” Rodriguez posted in a statement on Telegram, also addressing Donald Trump directly and saying that “our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war”.
We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.
Updated
Dozens of Cubans killed in US raid on Venezuela, says Havana
Thirty-two Cubans were killed in “combat” during the US raid on Venezuela, the Cuban government announced on Sunday
A decree issued by the office of President Miguel Díaz-Canel declaring two days of national mourning said the Cubans present in Venezuela “fell after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of installations”
Díaz-Canel wrote on X:
Honor and glory to the brave Cuban combattants who died facing terrorists in imperial uniform, who kidnapped and illegally removed from his country the president of Venezuela and his wife.
The Cubans were “carrying out missions in representation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the interior ministry” at the request of Venezuela, according to the decree.
Cuba has long provided security advisers and intelligence agents to Venezuela in support of the Maduro government.
Rodriguez calls for respectful relationship with Trump
Venezuela’s interim leader has reportedly asked Donald Trump for a balanced and respectful relationship.
Delcy Rodriguez has also, as mentioned, held her first cabinet meeting since the US seized leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
State channel VTV showed Rodriguez at a table in the Miraflores presidential palace alongside two other key Maduro loyalists, defence minister Vladimir Padrino and interior minister Diosdado Cabello.
Updated
Trump says US military operation in Colombia 'sounds good to me'
More now on Donald Trump’s comments about Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s leftwing president: Trump said the country was being “run by a sick man” and accused him of producing and selling cocaine to the US, adding: “He’s not going to be doing it very long.”
According to an audio recording of Trump talking to media aboard Air Force One on Sunday, when a reporter asks if that means there will be a US operation in Colombia, the president says: “It sounds good to me.”
The US and Colombia have had ongoing tensions for months amid the US military build-up in the Caribbean and Petro has been one of Trump’s harshest international critics.
The Colombian leader has said his government has been seizing cocaine at unprecedented rates and last month he invited Trump to visit the country – the world’s largest producer of cocaine – to see government efforts to destroy drug-producing labs.
At the weekend Petro called the US action in Venezuela an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America that would lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Petro’s criticism of the US campaign against Venezuela, and its targeting of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, has infuriated Trump, who on Saturday said the Colombian leader should “watch his ass”.
Updated
Donald Trump is being quoted as saying Operation Colombia “sounds good to me”.
Reuters is also quoting the US president as saying Colombia is run by a sick man and that he won’t be doing that for very long.
We’ll bring you Trump’s exact quotes as we get them.
Donald Trump is reportedly saying he is looking more at getting Venezuela “fixed” than holding an election there right now.
He is also being quoted as saying “we’re in charge” in Venezuela.
More on this as it comes to hand.
As just posted, British cabinet minister Darren Jones – a close ally of PM Keir Starmer – has called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”.
Updated
Transfer Venezuela power 'quickly', says UK minister
A British cabinet minister has called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”, after Donald Trump declared the US would “run” the country until a new government took over.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, declined to say whether he thought the American strikes on Caracas early on Saturday were legal, insisting it was for “international courts” to judge, PA Media reports.
The UK was reportedly not informed of the operation that saw Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro captured and flown to New York before it was carried out.
“The United Kingdom was not involved in any way,” Jones told Sky News.
We were not informed of it beforehand. So it’s not for us to judge whether it’s been a success or not. That’s for the Americans to speak to.
The minister and close ally of Starmer added:
I think the important thing now, given the events that have unfolded over the last 48 hours, is that we are quickly able to get to a point where we can get to a peaceful transition to a president in Venezuela that has the support of the people of Venezuela.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, appeared to dismiss the idea of imminent elections when asked how soon a vote could take place later on Sunday, telling NBC: “I think it’s premature at this point.”
Updated
Asian stocks have opened higher on Monday as investors weighed the impact of Washington’s ousting of Nicolás Maduro.
In early trade the Nikkei in Tokyo was up 1.50% at 51,097 points while South Korea’s Kospi was 2.09% higher at 4,399, AFP is reporting.
Oil prices, meanwhile, recovered from earlier falls while gold moved higher.
Acting Venezuelan president holds first cabinet meeting – report
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, is holding the government’s first cabinet meeting since the weekend removal of Nicolás Maduro, the AFP news agency is reporting.
We’ll bring you more on this as it comes to hand.
Updated
González says Maduro's ouster 'important but not enough'
Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo González has said the US’s ousting of President Nicolás Maduro is important but not sufficient to return the country to normal.
“This moment represents an important step, but it is not enough,” he said in a post on Instagram on Sunday from exile in Spain.
Agence France-Presse quoted González as saying the country could return to normal only when “all Venezuelans who have been deprived of their freedom for political reasons are released” and the results of the 2024 election, which he claims to have won, are respected.
Updated
Oil prices slip despite Venezuela upheaval
The price of oil has slid in early Asian trade on Monday after the weekend’s events in Venezuela.
The drop comes amid ample global oil supply despite concerns about the political upheaval in Venezuela disrupting shipments, Reuters is reporting.
Brent crude futures fell 34 cents to $60.41 a barrel by 23.08 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $56.91 a barrel, down 41c.
The US strike on Venezuela to extract President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas at the weekend inflicted no damage on the country’s oil production and refining industry, two sources with knowledge of operations at state oil company PDVSA said at the weekend.
Opec+ had its monthly meeting on Sunday and decided to hold output.
Analysts said there was plentiful oil supply in global markets, meaning any further disruption to Venezuela’s exports would have little immediate impact on prices.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage. Stay with us for the latest updates
Updated
At the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, which spans the Táchira River, foot and vehicle traffic flowed as normal through the main border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia.
But a day after the extraordinary US capture and rendition of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, there was an air of uncertainty over what comes next.
On the Venezuelan side of the bridge, a member of the Bolivarian national guard said that his instructions from the military top brass had not changed.
“It’s a bit tense but we have been given no new orders,” he said.
Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US would now “run” the country for an indeterminate period of transition, but such claims seemed not to have filtered down to this corner of the country, 640km (400 miles) from Caracas. “Whoever governs us has to be a Venezuelan,” said the man.
In a sign that Venezuelan authorities are also on edge, his commanding officer angrily cut short the conversation and tore a page from a reporter’s notebook before suggesting that she return to the Colombian side.
“Things are complicated,” he said.
Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, said on Sunday that the US wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” to stop drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country”.
Noem indicated in an interview on Fox News Sunday that the immigration status of Venezuelan nationals living in the US under temporary protected status (TPS) was part of an administration-wide decision-making process that her department would follow.
“Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday,” Noem said, adding that “every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status”. She added: “We need to make sure that our programs actually mean something, and that we’re following the law.”
Four months ago, Noem terminated the 2021 Biden-era designation of TPS for Venezuela, affecting over 250,000 Venezuelans living in the US, after determining it is “contrary to the US national interest”.
Those covered joined around 350,000 Venezuelans stripped of temporary protected status under a previous order.
US vice-president JD Vance has addressed the apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s military operations in Venezuela and justifications based in part of an effort to curb the trafficking of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the US.
In a post on X , Vance said he wanted to address “a lot claims [sic] that Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs because most of the fentanyl comes from elsewhere.”
“First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was). Second, cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels. If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too! Third, yes, a lot of fentanyl is coming out of Mexico. That continues to be a focus of our policy in Mexico and is a reason why President Trump shut the border on day one.”
Outgoing Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene raised the question of why the US was striking Venezuela if part of the purpose was to reduce fentanyl deaths in the US. (The administration said it was moving to list the synthetic opioid as a weapon of mass destruction.)
“The majority of American fentanyl overdoses and death come from Mexico,” Greene said. “Those are the Mexican cartels that are killing Americans. And so my pushback here is if this was really about narco-terrorists and about protecting Americans from cartels and drugs being brought into America, the Trump administration would be attacking the Mexican cartels.”
In his remarks, Vance said he’d seen “a lot of criticism” about oil.
“About 20 years ago, Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narco-terrorist activities. I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing? Great powers don’t act like that. The United States, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, is a great power again. Everyone should take note”.
Maduro's son vows the ousted president 'will return'
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, said his father’s supporters are more resolved than ever to support the ousted president, according to an audio shared on social media.
“They will not see us weak,” the younger Maduro said. “The President Nicolás Maduro will return. He will return. It’s been a day of shock, of course, we’re all in shock.”
“But we will take to the streets, we will convene the people, we will unite, we will form a nucleus around our highest political-military command with maximum unity,” he added.
The younger Maduro is currently a member of the Venezuelan national assembly and likely remains in Venezuela.
He was also recently indicted, alongside his father, in the southern district of New York. The indictment, including the younger Maduro, was released on Saturday.
Venezuelan president Maduro had been indicted in 2020 in the same case, alongside other top Venezuelan officials and former Colombian guerrilla leaders. But the indictment released on Saturday is the fourth and latest, accusing Maduro and others of other illegal activities since 2020. The latest indictment also included new defendants, including Maduro’s son and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was also abducted and brought to New York.
“History will show who the traitors were,” the younger Maduro said in the audio. “History will reveal it. We will see it. But we need to concentrate on moving the nation forward, raise the flags of Chavez and bring back safe and sound Nicolás Maduro Moros and Cilia Flores.”
Updated
The Danish prime minister called on the US to stop “threatening” Greenland on Sunday, after Donald Trump commented he “absolutely” needed the territory, one day after the US’s abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, AFP reports.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants Greenland to become an annexed part of the US. The US government’s intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears the US will do the same to Greenland.
“I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland,” Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement late Sunday.
During a phone interview with the Atlantic magazine, Trump said that it was up to others to decide about the implications of the Venezuela military operation for Greenland.
“They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know,” Trump was quoted as saying.
He added: “But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”
Late Saturday, Katie Miller – wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller – posted the contentious image of the Danish autonomous territory in the colours of the US flag on her X feed.
Her post had a single word above it: “SOON”.
Updated
The New York Times reports a number of factors finally led the Trump administration to invade Venezuela and abduct president Nicolás Maduro – including Maduro’s dance moves.
The newspaper reports that Trump presented Maduro with an ultimatum in December, telling him to leave office and go into exile in Turkey. Maduro refused.
Then, Maduro went back onstage this week, dancing to an electronic song that said “no crazy war” in his voice.
According to sources the Times spoke with, that was the last straw for the administration.
Maduro’s “regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff”, two confidential sources told the Times.
Updated
The New York Times and the Washington Post learned of the secret US government raid to abduct Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro before it happened, but did not publish what they knew “to avoid endangering US troops”, Semafor reports.
The New York Times and the Post knew of the raid, approved by Donald Trump on Friday night, soon before it was scheduled to begin. But the newsrooms and the Trump administration were in contact and that the administration urged the newspapers to hold off on their reporting, the Semafor report says.
More than 40 Venezuelans were killed in the operation and some US personnel were injured, US and Venezuelan authorities announced.
Updated
The Colombian guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberación Nacional), also known as the ELN by its acronym in Spanish, condemned the US invasion of Venezuela on Saturday, calling for a stand against the US government in the region.
In a statement by the ELN’s central command, the insurgent group said it “joins the voices of the international community that reject and condemn the attacks by the United States against Venezuela, which violate its sovereignty”.
The ELN also stressed that the US government’s further intervention in the region should be confronted.
“We stand with all patriots, democrats, and revolutionaries from Colombia and the continent to confront the imperial plans against Venezuela and the people of the South,” the ELN’s central command wrote in their statement.
The statement was distributed among ELN Telegram groups and was viewed by the Guardian.
The ELN is a far-left insurgent group in Colombia that has engaged in a longtime conflict with the Colombian government since the 1960s.
In 1997, the US government declared the ELN to be a terrorist organization and has accused the group of engaging in cocaine trafficking and other crimes to further its political insurgency. Throughout the civil conflict in Colombia, the US government provided support to Colombian armed forces to fight the ELN and other guerrilla groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the latter of which signed a peace treaty in 2016.
The Colombian government and the ELN have attempted, in various instances, to engage in peace talks to end the conflict, similar to the ones with the FARC. Those talks have been unsuccessful, including recently under the current presidency of Gustavo Petro.
The ELN has evolved throughout the years and has increasingly ventured into Venezuela, expanding its reach and increasing its strength. According to the most recent unsealed indictment against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and other co-defendants, including his wife, Maduro provided protection to the ELN and other far-left Colombian guerrilla groups.
One of Maduro’s co-defendants, former Interior and Justice Minister Ramón Rodriguez Chacín, was allegedly “assigned” by Maduro “to provide the FARC and ELN with protection and support”, the indictment reads.
During the fall, the Trump administration began striking a number of boats in the ocean near South America, claiming without evidence that traffickers and “narcoterrorists” were transporting drugs. In October, defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the US military targeted and struck a boat allegedly affiliated with the ELN, killing all three men onboard.
Updated
Nearly all countries within the European Union, except Hungary, issued a statement about the US-Venezuela crisis, saying the “will of the Venezuelan people” was the only way to restore the country’s democracy, Reuters reports.
“The European Union calls for calm and restraint by all actors, to avoid escalation and to ensure a peaceful solution to the crisis,” 26 EU countries said in a statement.
“Respecting the will of the Venezuelan people remains the only way for Venezuela to restore democracy and resolve the current crisis,” the statement added.
Donald Trump is now fine with the principle of regime change imposed on another country by the United States, according to a short telephone interview he conducted on Sunday morning.
Talking to the Atlantic, the US president said, after the US removal by force of Venezuelan president Nicholás Maduro and Trump’s rapid assertions that the US will run the country in the interim: “You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse.”
His interviewer pointed out that Trump had specifically in the past campaigned against a policy of favoring regime change in other countries, and he campaigned in 2024 on a policy of “America first” and shying away from military intervention abroad.
Trump didn’t explain how he thought removing the president of Venezuela and trying to engineer how that country will be run was or will turn out to be a fundamentally different kind of venture from the US invading Iraq, removing Saddam Hussein and operating inside that country.
What he did say was: “I didn’t do Iraq. That was Bush. You’ll have to ask [President George W] Bush that question, because we should have never gone into Iraq. That started the Middle East disaster.”
Updated
Trump threatens Venezuela's interim leader
Donald Trump on Sunday threatened Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, that if she did not comply with demands from the US that she could pay a “bigger price” than the captured president Nicolás Maduro.
The US president conducted a short telephone interview with The Atlantic magazine as he was on his way to play golf in Florida.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said.
The US has commandedVenezuela to stop involvement in “narco terrorism” drug smuggling operations to the US, distance itself from US adversaries such as Cuba, Iran and militant proxies such as the Hezbollah group and facilitate the US overseeing its oil operations.
He did not explain his comments on Saturday that the US will run Venezuela, which senior Republican figures such as secretary of state Marco Rubio were backpedaling from at speed on Sunday.
Summary: the day so far
It’s a lively day in international politics after the US intervention in Venezuela, with much comment and question about what happened, what it means and what’s to come. As many prominent figures are speaking up and developments continue on the ground in Caracas, we’ll keep you up to date with the news as it happens.
Here’s where things stand:
The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay put out a strong joint statement saying the US actions in Venezuela “constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population”, in an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s assertion that the US will “run” Venezuela and oversee oil production there.
Venezuela’s defense minister, General Vladímir Padrino López, issued a statement recognizing the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, as the country’s acting president. He said Venezuela’s military “categorically reject the cowardly kidnapping” of the dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores by the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to distance this weekend’s invasion of Venezuela from other invasions such as the US in Iraq more than 20 years ago, saying the events, despite their apparent similarities, are “very different.”
Rubio said on CBS that the US will continue to place pressure on Venezuela by seizing Venezuelan oil shipment boats. The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed a desire to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves after ousting Maduro..
Prominent US Republicans including Rubio and Senators Tom Cotton and Jim Jordan, both senate committee chairmen, on Sunday were swiftly backpedaling on Donald Trump’s assertions in a press conference on Saturday, just hours after the military intervention in Venezuela and the snatching of Maduro, that the US “will run” Venezuela in transition. The men essentially talked about pressuring the country’s Venezuelan leadership to comply with US demands about its future conduct.
Pope Leo – the first American pontiff - said Venezuela must remain an independent country, as he called for respect of human rights after Nicolás Maduro’s capture by the US. Addressing crowds at the Vatican in Rome after Sunday prayer, the Pope - who spent years as a missionary in Peru - said: “The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over any other consideration.”
Updated
Senator Jim Jordan spoke further on Sunday to echo Trump’s claims accusing Venezuela of taking oil that belonged to the US government.
“When that country took assets that belonged to American companies — that’s wrong,” Jordan said on CNN’s State of the Union. “That’s all President Trump is saying is going to change in the future relative to oil. I think that makes sense. They took property from American companies. That makes sense that there’s going to be some kind of compensation, some kind of reckoning for that.”
After Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1999, his “Bolivarian Revolution” movement nationalized a number of privately-run oil fields and reserves in Venezuela, including some owned by international oil companies. Resources from the state-owned petroleum company were then used to fund social programs in the country.
Trump on Saturday accused Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s successor, of stealing oil from the US. In recent months, as the Trump administration’s pressure on the country increased, the administration seized a Venezuelan oil ship. Trump later said the US would keep the oil or sell it.
Updated
Republican Congressman and chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan said on Sunday that the US government’s abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife were consistent with the “America First” philosophy Trump ran on.
“Getting a bad guy brought to justice who’s had a five-year arrest warrant, that is certainly consistent with that theme and that message as well,” Jordan said during CNN’s State of the Union. “So I think the American people appreciate that. And, frankly, I think that’s the message we go tell the American people in this midterm election. President Trump and Republicans did what we said we would do. We’re doing that.”
Jordan’s claims contrast with hardline Maga Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments, who called out the Trump administration’s actions, saying they did not follow “America First.”
Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay condemn 'dangerous precedent' set by US attack on Venezuela
The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay have just put out this strong joint statement in response to what they term “the gravity of the events occurring in Venezuela”, saying the US’s actions “constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population”.
In an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s assertion that the US will “run” Venezuela and oversee oil production, the six governments also express concern “regarding any attempt at government control, administration, or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources”.
The statement reads:
We express our profound concern and rejection of the military actions carried out unilaterally on Venezuelan territory, which contravene fundamental principles of international law, particularly the prohibition of the use and threat of force, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. These actions constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and put the civilian population at risk.
We reiterate that the situation in Venezuela must be resolved exclusively through peaceful means, by means of dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in all its expressions, without external interference and in accordance with international law. We reaffirm that only an inclusive political process, led by Venezuelans, can lead to a democratic and sustainable solution that respects human dignity.
We reaffirm the character of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, built on mutual respect, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and non-intervention, and we call for regional unity, beyond political differences, in the face of any action that jeopardises regional stability. We also urge the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Member States of the relevant multilateral mechanisms to use their good offices to contribute to de-escalating tensions and preserving regional peace.
We express our concern regarding any attempt at government control, administration, or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources, which is incompatible with international law and threatens the political, economic, and social stability of the region.
Updated
Delcy Rodríguez recognized as Venezuela's acting president by defense minister
Venezuela’s defense minister, General Vladímir Padrino López, issued a statement recognizing the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, as the country’s acting president.
In the document, Padrino López first stressed that the Venezuelan armed forces “categorically reject the cowardly kidnapping” of the dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and said US troops had “cold-bloodedly assassinated much of his security detail, soldiers and innocent civilians”, without providing specifics such as names or death toll.
He then wrote that, in “strict compliance” with Venezuelan law, the military would abide by a supreme court ruling appointing Rodríguez “in an acting capacity, with all the powers, duties and faculties of the president of the republic”.
Yesterday, at the press conference following Maduro’s capture, Donald Trump said Rodríguez, who had served as vice-president since the contested 2018 election, would be left in charge of the country and was willing to work with the US to “make Venezuela great again”.
Although Rodríguez kept a defiant tone in a televised address hours later, demanding the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Sunday that Washington would judge her and other remaining figures in the regime by their “actions and facts” in the coming days, not by their public statements.
Padrino López added in his Sunday statement that the armed forces would “guarantee the country’s governability” and use “all available capacities to defend the country, maintain internal order and preserve peace.
He also wrote that Venezuela’s military apparatus, in what he described as a “perfect fusion of the people, police and armed forces”.
He also wrote that Venezuela’s military apparatus, in what he described as a “perfect fusion of the people, police and armed forces” – a reference to the militias the regime says it has at its disposal – remained mobilized to “confront imperial aggression, forming a single combat bloc to ensure the freedom, independence and sovereignty of the nation”.
Updated
Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Maga Republican, told NBC’s Meet the Press that Maduro’s capture is not “America First”.
“If this was really about narcoterrorists and about protecting Americans from cartels and drugs being brought into America, the Trump administration would be attacking the Mexican cartels” Greene said Sunday.
Many Republicans argued Sunday that the US military action in Venezuela conforms to “America First” because it projects good house-keeping in the Western Hemisphere that benefits the US.
Greene said she was “not defending Maduro and of course I’m happy for the people of Venezuela to be liberated.”
“But Americans celebrated the liberation of the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein. They celebrated the liberation of the Libyan people after Gaddafi. And this is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn’t serve the American people, but actually serves the big corporations, the banks, and the oil executives.”
Speaking of Maga priorities, she said “we don’t consider Venezuela our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the southern hemisphere”, adding “my understanding of ‘America First’ is strictly for the American people, not for the big donors that donate to big politicians”.
Updated
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stopped short of criticizing the Trump administration’s abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro on Sunday morning, instead criticizing the lack of congressional approval for the operation and Donald Trump’s domestic policies.
“Donald Trump claims that he’s going to run Venezuela. He’s done a terrible job running the United States of America. Life hasn’t gotten better for the American people over the last year; life has gotten worse,” Jeffries said. “So the notion that he’s going to run Venezuela and make life better for the Venezuelan people of course is belied by the facts as to what he’s done as President here in the United States of America.”
Jeffries said that the operation was a “military action” and urged the Trump administration to consult with congress before any further steps.
“This was not simply a counter narcotics operation. It was an act of war. It involved, of course, the Delta Force. And we’re thankful for the precision by which they executed the operation, and thankful for the fact that no American lives were lost,” Jeffries said. “So of course this was a military action, and pursuant to the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war to authorize acts that take place in this regard.”
“We have to make sure when we return to Washington D.C. that legislative action is taken to ensure that no further military steps occur absent explicit congressional approval,” Jeffries added.
Updated
Marco Rubio attempts to distance US attack on Venezuela from past invasions
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to distance this weekend’s invasion of Venezuela from similar invasions in recent decades, saying the events, despite their similarities, are “very different.”
Some analysts equated the US invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of president Nicolás Maduro to other events in recent decades, including the invasion of Iraq and other military excursions in the Middle East.
“This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere,” Rubio said on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “Within the Western Hemisphere, we have a country, potentially a very rich country, that has cozied itself up — under the control of this regime — has cozied up to Iran. Has cozied up to Hezbollah. Has allowed narco-trafficking gangs to operate with impunity from their own territory, allows boats with drugs to traffic from their territory.”
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein under the guise of ridding the country of “weapons of mass destruction” and Hussein’s alleged ties to terrorist groups.
Updated
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on CBS News’ Face the Nation pushed back on questioning regarding why other top Venezuelan officials and Nicolás Maduro allies were not also abducted by US forces. Rubio underscored that the operation to abduct Maduro was a complicated one.
“Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people,” Rubio said. “We got the top priority.”
A number of other top Venezuelan officials, who worked closely with Maduro, remain in the country. One of those, Venezuelan interior minister Diosdado Cabello, has also been indicted by the US government and has a $25 million reward.
“It is not easy to land helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in the country — the guy lived on a military base — land within three minutes, kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets. That’s not an easy mission,” Rubio said.
“And you’re asking me: ‘why didn’t we do that in five other places at the same time?’ I mean, that’s absurd.”
Updated
Marco Rubio: US to continue to pressure on Venezuela by seizing oil shipment boats
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on CBS News’ Face the Nation that the US will continue to place pressure on Venezuela by seizing Venezuelan oil shipment boats.
“There’s a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments, there’s a boat, and that boat is under US sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it,” Rubio said. “That remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that — not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one — but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed a desire to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves after ousting Maduro.
In December, the US government seized a Venezuelan oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, considered by some analysts to be an act of piracy. Trump then said that the US would keep or sell the seized Venezuelan oil.
During Trump’s press conference on Saturday, he said that Venezuela had stolen oil that belongs to the US, despite oil being in Venezuelan territory.
Updated
US senator Chris Murphy, questioned the Trump administration’s motives for abducting and removing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro on CNN.
“If this is really just about the oil, if this is really just about the natural resources, if this is just about getting a bunch of Donald Trump’s friends even richer, I don’t think there is a single American family who would support having their son or daughter put into harm’s way to defend the interests of Wall Street,” Murphy said. “This is once again American oil interests, American financial interests, coming before the actual national security interests of the United States.”
Updated
Chris Murphy, the US senator from Connecticut, criticized the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela on CNN.
Murphy equated the US attacks on Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to other US wars in other parts of the world.
“Over and over again we have seen these warmongering neocons, many of which have influence in this White House, cheerlead us into war under the guise of removing a ‘very bad man’,” Murphy said, likely referring to the long-running US wars in the Middle East. “That ends up getting a lot of Americans killed.”
Updated
Republican walks back Trump's claim US will 'run' Venezuela
Tom Cotton, the Republican chair of the Senate intelligence committee, admitted on CNN’s State of the Union that there were “still a lot of questions to be answered” about what happens next in Venezuela. He reined sharply back on Trump’s claim that the US would run the country, redefining that startling comment as meaning that the leadership would have to abide by US demands.
“The president wants to give them a chance to turn the page in Venezuela and to help America achieve our policy goals there,” he said. Cotton listed some of the US government’s demands, including: “we want them to stop the drug trafficking. We want them to kick out the Iranians, the Cubans, the Islamic radicals.”
“Just return to being a normal nation that will help build stability, order and prosperity, not just in Venezuela, but in our backyard,” Cotton added.
Cotton also gave a more lukewarm assessment of Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez, whom Trump has indicated the US could possibly work with. “We don’t recognize Delcy Rodriguez as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela,” the senator said.
He added: “I don’t think that we can count on Delcy Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it.”
Updated
Marco Rubio: 'the Cuban government is a huge problem'
When asked by NBC News if the US will target the Cuban government next, Rubio said “the Cuban government is a huge problem” and when pressed on whether this remark meant yes, Rubio said: “I think they’re in a lot of trouble”.
He added:
I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime.
Cuba – one of Venezuela’s closest allies - has condemned the US attack as an “act of state terrorism” and is closely monitoring the situation in Caracas. The country, which relies heavily on Venezuelan oil, is in a deep economic crisis.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who Donald Trump has said will help “run” Venezuela, is speaking to the US media. We will bring you the latest lines as soon as we can. Here is a bit of what Rubio said to NBC News’ Meet the Press programme.
Asked how many American soldiers were in Venezuela, he confirmed there were no forces on the ground.
“We don’t have US forces on the ground,” Rubio said, adding that forces were in Venezuela “for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro” on Saturday.
Pope calls for Venezuela to remain independent of US
Pope Leo – the first American pontiff - said Venezuela must remain an independent country as he called for respect of human rights after Nicolás Maduro’s capture by the US.
Addressing crowds at the Vatican after Sunday prayer, the Pope - who spent years as a missionary in Peru - said: “The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over any other consideration.”
That must “lead to overcoming violence and embarking on paths of justice and peace, guaranteeing the sovereignty of the country, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each and every person, and working together to build a peaceful future of collaboration, stability, and harmony, with special attention to the poorest who are suffering because of the difficult economic situation”.
Updated
What we know so far
A plane believed to have been carrying Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed in New York on Saturday evening. Maduro was taken to the US Drug Enforcement Administration offices and is now believed to be at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
CBS News reported that Maduro arrived at the MDC at about 8:52pm ET on Saturday, where he was filmed making a “perp walk” handcuffed and escorted by agents in a video posted on social media by the White House’s official rapid response account. In the video, Maduro, who is wearing a black hooded top and hat, walks down a hallway with a carpet that says “DEA NYD”. He can be heard saying “Goodnight” and “Happy new year”.
Donald Trump told a press conference on Saturday “We’re going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”. He did not give further details.
A newly unsealed US justice department indictment accuses Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fuelled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the US with thousands of tons of cocaine.
The US is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the military operation, Trump said. “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”
Trump said his administration had not spoken to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado. He said he did not think she would be able to return to lead Venezuela, saying: “She does not have the support in Venezuela. She is a very nice woman but she does not have the support.”
Venezuela’s supreme court has ordered vice president Delcy Rodríguez to assume the role of acting president in Maduro’s absence.
Asked about Trump’s comment that the US will “run” Venezuela temporarily, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS News: “President Trump sets the terms … 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.”
The UN security council is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is deeply alarmed by US military action in Venezuela, his spokesperson has said, and considered the US intervention “a dangerous precedent”.
The New York Times reported that at least 40 people, including civilians and soldiers, were killed in Saturday’s attack. The estimate came from a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Global reaction has been filtering in over the day. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has been urged by opposition parties to condemn the US military action in Venezuela, but he has so far refused. The former US vice president, Kamala Harris, has posted to X to say the American actions in Venezuela were “unlawful and unwise” moves that “do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable”. North Korea has reportedly condemned the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro as a “serious encroachment of sovereignty”. Spain – which has the largest Venezuelan diaspora outside of the US – has condemned what it called a violation of international law.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s failure to condemn the US’ actions in Venezuela “speaks volumes”, according to Philippe Sands KC, a specialist in international law who served as a prosecutor for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after he was arrested in London in 1998.
He said:
The action against Venezuela is manifestly illegal under international law, and cannot plausibly or by any reasonable standard be characterised as a law enforcement action. What now is the plan? One need only to think of Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Libya, amongst others, to imagine what the consequences might be, and the encouragement it will surely give to others to act with such brazen disregard for the international legal norms that bind us all.
Equally worrisome is the failure of others to condemn. The apparent silence of the British prime minister speaks volumes. Having lived through the catastrophe and criminality of the Iraq war in 2003, which Mr Trump himself has condemned, I would hope that Keir Starmer sticks to the principles of legality to which he says he is so firmly committed.
Here are some images from the protest against the US strike on Venezuela, held outside the US embassy in Madrid this afternoon.
Spain has condemned what it called a violation of international law in Venezuela, the country’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez wrote in a letter sent to members of his Socialist Party.
Reuters reports:
Sanchez’ comments went further than his remarks on Saturday in which he said he would not recognise the intervention. lHis etter described the “violation of international law in Venezuela, an act that we strongly condemn”.
The Socialists’ hard-left coalition partner Sumar had urged the government to condemn the US strikes that resulted in the Venezuelan president’s capture, with party sources describing it as an act of imperialist piracy against a member state of the United Nations.
Spain is home to the largest Venezuelan migrant population outside Latin America and the US, and they include senior opposition figures such as Edmundo Gonzalez and Leopoldo Lopez.
On Sunday, hundreds of left-wing protesters demonstrated at the US embassy in Madrid to oppose Washington’s actions after thousands of opposition activists and others gathered at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol on Saturday to celebrate Maduro’s detention.
Updated
The Guardian’s energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose has written a helpful explainer on the role the US could play in Venezuela’s oil industry.
Experts told her that lifting production to former levels could take decades and that huge investment was needed.
Under the new regime, US oil companies could follow the playbook used in many developing nations by partnering with the state oil company, PDVSA, to develop and produce crude in exchange for a share of the profits. The parlous financial state of PDVSA means US companies are likely to be able to negotiate a good return on their investments.
But even with a united effort of the US president and some of the world’s biggest oil companies, success is not guaranteed.
Read more here:
The superseding federal indictment unsealed against Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday immediately after his capture appears to embrace controversial claims made by the Trump administration about a Venezuelan street gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), writes the Guardian’s senior political enterprise reporter Aram Roston.
The new indictment doesn’t spell out precisely what Maduro’s connection would be to TdA. Instead, it says Maduro and others “partnered with narco-terrorists”, including TdA.
Read more here:
Celebrations and protests take place around the world after US strikes on Venezuela - video
Venezuelans around the world have celebrated after the US government captured and removed the authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro. Over recent years, million of Venezuelans have fled the country, driven out by a mixture of widespread shortages and intense political repression.
After hearing the dramatic news of the US attack, crowds of people gathered in countries including Argentina, Chile and Colombia, to wave flags, sing songs and dance in jubilation, while others gathered to condemn the US government’s strikes on Venezuela and voiced opposition to military action.
Here is some video showing the differing moods on the streets:
Sibylla Brodzinsky has this report from the Colombian town of Cúcuta:
At the Simon Bolivar International bridge, the main border crossing between Colombia and Venezuela, a sergeant with Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard seemed unfazed by the ousting and arrest of Maduro.
“We’re far away from Caracas,” said the guardsman, who declined to give his name. “Here everything is normal.”
He would not comment on the US operation other than to say his orders had not changed and: “As soldiers, we stand firm with the homeland”.
A few hundred meters away, the smiling face of Maduro adorns a plaque on an administrative building with a quote that reads, in part: “In this world no one respects cowards.”
Traffic at the border was light this weekend, with what locals said was a “normal” flow of people who transit from one country to another for shopping and business.
The difference was the presence of three Colombian armoured personnel carriers, that President Gustavo Petro ordered to safeguard the frontier.
Emilio Vargas, a Colombian mototaxi driver, said he’d had few Venezuelan customers on Saturday. “Some came early did their shopping and went back and I imagine are staying at home,” he said as he waited for new fares. “But they all seem happy” about the US operation that removed Maduro from power, he said.
Earlier in the day, Venezuelan citizen Leydy Villamizar, 32, could not hide her glee as she boarded a flight from Bogotá to Cúcuta where she was visiting relatives.
“I never thought I would live to see this day”, said the insurance broker who fled from her hometown of Barquisimeto to Chile in 2017 at the height of the Venezuelan exodus to countries around Latin America.
She was surprised by the news when her flight from Santiago landed in the Colombian capital. Villamizar said she was not concerned about the Americans “running” Venezuela for a while, as US President Donald Trump announced. “We already have Chinese, Russians and Cubans running things. Let the gringos come. It can’t be worse than how it’s been.”
Updated
US attack on Venezuela raises fears of future Greenland takeover
Deborah Cole is a Berlin correspondent for the Guardian
The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, have renewed fears of an American takeover of Greenland, as members of Donald Trump’s Maga movement gleefully set their sights on the Danish territory after the attack in South America.
Just hours after the US military operation in Venezuela, the rightwing podcaster Katie Miller – the wife of Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s powerful deputy chief of staff for policy – posted on X a map of Greenland draped in the stars and stripes with the caption: “SOON.”
The threat to annex the mineral-rich territory, which is part of the Nato alliance, drew immediate outrage from Danes.
Copenhagen’s ambassador to the US, Jesper Møller Sørensen, reposted Miller’s provocation with a “friendly reminder” of the longstanding defence ties between the two countries.
You can read the full story here:
Donald Trump has suggested in extremely vague terms that officials in Washington, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would play a significant role in running Venezuela, for now.
With Maduro in US custody, “we will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”, the US president said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday.
“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 US would run Venezuela “with a group” and would be “designating various people” in charge while pointing to Rubio; the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth; and the joint chiefs of staff chair, Gen Dan “Razin” Caine, behind him.
He didn’t go into details but said he was open to the idea of sending US forces into Venezuela.
Trump said Rubio had talked with Delcy Rodriguez, who he said had indicated that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
The US president called Rodriguez “quite gracious” but said “she really doesn’t have a choice” in the matter.
Updated
Who is running Venezuela now?
The Constitutional Chamber of Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered on Saturday that the country’s vice-president Delcy Rodríguez assume the role of acting president of the country in the absence of Nicolás Maduro, who is in custody at a New York detention centre after he was captured during US strikes on Venezuela yesterday.
The court ruling said that Rodríguez would assume “the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation.”
The judges stopped short of declaring Maduro permanently absent from office, a ruling that requires holding elections within 30 days.
Rodríguez – also minister for both finance and oil – chaired a national defence council session shortly after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and reportedly demanded the couple’s “immediate release” while denouncing the US operation.
As confusion spread across the country, she called for unity and calm on Saturday evening, saying Venezuela would “never again be the colony of any empire” and that Maduro was the country’s only president.
Starlink, which is run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has said it will provide free broadband to Venezuela. “Starlink is providing free broadband service to the people of Venezuela through February 3, ensuring continued connectivity,” Starlink said on X.
Under Maduro, Venezuela’s internet was tightly controlled, subject to censorship and blackouts.
Following the July 2024 presidential election – which Maduro claimed to have won despite widespread condemnation – independent news sites and communications platforms were blocked, according to Freedom House, a US-based non-profit.
Large-scale arbitrary detentions, including for online activities, were also carried out, while the state manipulated online discussion through influence operations, Freedom House said in its annual report on internet freedoms.
Updated
Tom Phillips is the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent
The New York Times is reporting that Nicolás Maduro’s frequent displays of dancing played a role in Donald Trump’s decision to remove him from power with Saturday’s raid.
In the lead up to his capture, Maduro had made a succession of public appearances in which he strutted his stuff to the sound of electronic music containing a sample of one of his speeches in which he urged Trump not to launch a “crazy war”.
In an apparent attempt to project strength, the Venezuelan politician also popped up on television dancing salsa and singing songs including John Lennon’s Imagine and Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy.
Trump was reportedly not amused. “Maduro’s regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them ... So the White House decided to follow through on its military threats,” the New York Times reports.
North Korea condemns US capture of Maduro as 'serious encroachment of sovereignty'
North Korea has reportedly become the latest country to condemn the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro as a “serious encroachment of sovereignty” (see post at 08.49 for reactions from other world leaders).
Pyongyang’s foreign ministry “strongly denounces the US hegemony-seeking act committed in Venezuela”, a ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the official KCNA.
“The incident is another example that clearly confirms once again the rogue and brutal nature of the US,” they added.
Pyongyang, a supporter of Maduro’s socialist regime in Caracas, described the Venezuelan president’s removal as a “wanton violation of the UN charter and international laws with respect for sovereignty, non-interference and territorial integrity as their main purpose”.
The comments come after South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said that they detected several ballistic missile launches from North Korea’s capital region at about 7.50am local time (on Sunday).
In recent weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made numerous visits to weapons factories, as well as to a nuclear-powered submarine, and has overseen missile tests ahead of this year’s Ninth Party Congress of the Workers’ Party, which will set out major policy goals.
Pyongyang has for decades argued it needs its nuclear and missile programmes as a deterrent against alleged regime change efforts by Washington.
Updated
Democratic members of the US Congress said senior officials in the Trump administration had misled them during recent briefings about plans for Venezuela by insisting they were not planning regime change in Caracas.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, said he had been told in three classified briefings that the administration was not pursuing regime change or planning to take military action in Venezuela.
Schumer is expected to push for a vote next week on a war powers resolution to restrict Trump’s ability to take further military action without explicit authorisation by Congress.
At a press conference on Saturday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the president, Donald Trump, defended not telling Congress about the operation beforehand.
“We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on,” Rubio told reporters. “It’s just not the kind of mission you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.”
Trump added: “Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good.”
Updated
US military actions in Venezuela were 'unlawful and unwise', Kamala Harris says
The former US vice president, Kamala Harris, has posted to X to say the American actions in Venezuela were “unlawful and unwise” moves that “do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable”. She said:
That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We’ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price.
The American people do not want this, and they are tired of being lied to. This is not about drugs or democracy. It is about oil and Donald Trump’s desire to play the regional strongman. If he cared about either, he wouldn’t pardon a convicted drug trafficker or sideline Venezuela’s legitimate opposition while pursuing deals with Maduro’s cronies.
The President is putting troops at risk, spending billions, destabilizing a region, and offering no legal authority, no exit plan, and no benefit at home.
Is the US operation in Venezuela justified under international law?
Many countries viewed Nicolás Maduro as an illegitimate dictator but the legality of the operation to capture him and his wife has been seriously called into question – with some experts and observers saying it violated international law, ignored sovereign territorial rights and was reckless and potentially destabilising to the wider region.
My colleague Geraldine McKelvie spoke to leading experts in the field of international law to ask for their view on the rapidly unfolding events in Venezuela. Here is an extract from her story:
The experts the Guardian spoke to agreed that the US is likely to have violated the terms of the UN charter, which was signed in October 1945 and designed to prevent another conflict on the scale of the second world war. A central provision of this agreement – known as article 2(4) – rules that states must refrain from using military force against other countries and must respect their sovereignty.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, a founding head of Doughty Street Chambers and a former president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone, said the attack on Venezuela was contrary to article 2(4) of the charter. “The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations charter,” he added. “It has committed the crime of aggression, which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all.”
Keir Starmer also told the BBC that he thinks we are living in a more “volatile” world than we have been for “many, many years” and said global affairs have much more of a “direct impact” on the UK than they have in a long time, citing the effects of military conflicts and the climate crisis.
Asked if Donald Trump is worsening global turmoil, Starmer dodges the question and speaks about the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US.
The British prime minister said:
The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence.
It is my responsibility to make sure that relationship works as the prime minister of this country, working with the president of the United States. Not only have I stepped up to that responsibility, I have made it my business and I do get on with President Trump.
That is a strange alliance in a way – as he often points out, we are from different political traditions…
I constantly remind myself that 24/7, our defence, our security, and our intelligence relationship with the US matters probably more than any other relationship we’ve got in the world and that would not be in our national interest to weaken that in any way.
Of course it doesn’t mean I agree with President Trump on everything he says and does, any more than he would agree with everything that I say or do.
Updated
Keir Starmer refuses to condemn US attack on Venezuela
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has been urged by opposition parties to condemn the US military action in Venezuela.
Starmer has been repeatedly accused of kowtowing to the Trump administration, wanting to keep on side of Washington for economic and security reasons.
On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme this morning, Starmer was asked if he wanted to condemn the US attack on the sovereign country.
“I want to get all the material facts together and we simply haven’t got the full picture at the moment – it is fast moving,” he said, confirming again that there was no UK involvement in the US military operation.
The Labour leader said he needs to speak to Trump and other UK allies before commenting further. He said “he has been a lifelong advocate for international law” but refuses to condemn the US attack as he “wants to ensure he has all the facts” at his “disposal”.
Updated
Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he is following the developments in Venezuela with “concern” and said the US attack on the South American country was “unusual” in its “scope and nature”.
‘“Such actions constitute a clear violation of international law and amount to an unlawful use of force against a sovereign state,” he wrote in a post on X.
Ibrahim added:
President Maduro and his wife must be released without any undue delay. Whatever may be the reasons, the forcible removal of a sitting head of government through external action sets a dangerous precedent.
It erodes fundamental restraints on the use of power between states and weakens the legal framework that underpins international order. It is for the people of Venezuela to determine their own political future.
As history has shown, abrupt changes in leadership brought about through external force will bring more harm than good, what more in a country already grappling with prolonged economic hardship and deep social strain.
Updated
What has the world reaction been to the US capture of Nicolás Maduro?
Here is a round up of how world leaders have reacted to the US’s bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation condemned by Democrats on Capitol Hill as the most dangerous example of US imperialism since the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003. The reaction has been mixed:
China said the US should immediately release Maduro and his wife and resolve the situation in Venezuela through negotiation. The country’s foreign ministry said their deportation violated international law and norms.
Russia demanded for the US to “reconsider its position and release the legally elected president of the sovereign country and his wife”.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the US bombing and capture attack crossed “an unacceptable line” and represented “a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”
The Philippines urged “concerned parties” to avoid actions that could further escalate tensions, with the country’s foreign affairs spokesperson quoted as having said Manila is closely monitoring the “evolving” situation in Venezuela.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro - whose country neighbours Venezuela - called the US action an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America which would lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Mexico, which Donald Trump has also threatened with military force over drug trafficking, said the US military operation “seriously jeopardises regional stability”.
Cuba, a strong ally of Venezuela, denounced “state terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people”.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said the intervention “violates international law and pushes the region toward a horizon of uncertainty and militarism”.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Maduro had “led his country to ruin”, but called the US action legally “complex”.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni - a Trump ally - argued the US military action in Venezuela was “legitimate” and “defensive”.
France said the US operation undermined international law. The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called for 2004 presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to lead a political transition.
The UK prime minister Keir Starmer said: “We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate President and we shed no tears about the end of his regime. I reiterated my support for international law this morning.”
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, an ally of Trump, posted on social media in the early hours: “Liberty advances! Long live Liberty!” while Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, said “time was coming for all the narco-Chávista criminals”.
Updated
Images from news agencies show how Saturday’s dramatic events unfolded in the US.
Some took to the streets to condemn the bombing of Venezuela, with protesters holding signs that said “No blood for oil”, and rallying in locations including Times Square and outside the White House.
Others, however, celebrated.
Crowds waved the Venezuelan flag as they gathered after dark outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Maduro is now held, celebrating his removal. Some Venezuelans in the US have expressed hope they will be able to return home following his ousting.
Updated
Unsealed indictment reveals charges against Nicolás Maduro and his wife
A newly unsealed US justice department indictment accuses Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fuelled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the US with thousands of tons of cocaine.
Here’s a look at the accusations against Maduro and the charges he faces.
Flight restrictions around the Caribbean airspace will expire at 12am ET, allowing flights to resume, the US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said on social media.
“Airlines are informed, and will update their schedules quickly. Please continue to work with your airline if your flight was affected by the restrictions,” he said.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled following the US attack on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro.
United Airlines and Delta are preparing to resume flights to the Caribbean by Sunday.
China urges US to immediately release Maduro
China has called on the US to immediately release Maduro and his wife, saying the situation should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement the US should ensure the personal safety of Maduro and his wife, adding that their deportation violated international law and norms.
Maduro filmed making ‘perp walk’
Nicolás Maduro is reported to have arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to US media.
He is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, according to officials.
CBS News reported Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center, known as MDC, at about 8:52pm ET on Saturday.
The facility has held several high profile inmates, including rapper Sean “Diddy”, who was held there during his trial, until he was sentenced following his conviction on federal prostitution-related charges.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, who was found guilty of fraud charges, was also held at MDC, while Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is also held there.
Updated
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the US attacks on Venezuela and its capture of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro has now been brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, according to US media – more on that in a moment.
Here is a summary of the most significant developments in the past 24 hours:
A plane believed to have been carrying Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed in New York on Saturday evening. Maduro was taken to the US Drug Enforcement Administration offices and is now believed to be at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
A video, posted on social media by the White House’s official rapid response account, appeared to show Maduro handcuffed and escorted by agents at the US Drug Enforcement Administration offices. In the video, Maduro, who is wearing a black hooded top and hat, walks down a hallway with a carpet that says “DEA NYD”. He can be heard saying “Goodnight” and “Happy new year”.
Donald Trump told a press conference on Saturday “We’re going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”. He did not give further details.
The US is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the military operation, Trump said. “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”
Trump said his administration had not spoken to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado. He said he did not think she would be able to return to lead Venezuela, saying: “She does not have the support in Venezuela. She is a very nice woman but she does not have the support.”
Venezuela’s supreme court has ordered vice president Delcy Rodríguez to assume the role of acting president in Maduro’s absence.
Asked about Trump’s comment that the US will “run” Venezuela temporarily, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS News: “President Trump sets the terms … 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.”
The UN security council is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is deeply alarmed by US military action in Venezuela, his spokesperson has said, and considered the US intervention “a dangerous precedent”.
The New York Times reported that at least 40 people, including civilians and soldiers, were killed in Saturday’s attack. The estimate came from a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
