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Donald Trump has launched the most brazen foreign policy gambit of his second presidency, capturing and toppling Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in an operation to assert US dominance in the western hemisphere.
The US assault in Caracas to extract Maduro and bring him to the US to face criminal charges was accompanied by Trump’s vow that Washington would “run” Venezuela until further notice and take control of its oil sector.
The move followed months of escalation in America’s confrontation with Caracas, including boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers and a naval blockade to enforce an embargo on Venezuelan oil exports.
By late evening on the US east coast, Venezuela’s president for more than a decade had arrived by helicopter into New York City to face a string of federal charges — less than 24 hours after he was pulled from his bedroom in Caracas by American special forces.
US television on Saturday evening showed live footage of the Venezuelan leader’s flight from Manhattan to a US federal detention centre in Brooklyn, with the police helicopters skirting the Statue of Liberty en route.
The dramatic events offered a demonstration of Trump’s willingness to use military power to achieve his goals, as he did in June when he authorised US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and in northern Nigeria in late December.
But the attack on Venezuela also underlines the US president’s determination to establish an explicit sphere of geopolitical influence across the western hemisphere, which has been a hallmark of his second term in office.
It also draws the US into a potential new effort at regime change — despite Trump’s pledge to keep America out of new wars after ill-fated interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday, Trump said that the US would take control of the South American country “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.
Trump also said the US wanted “peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela”, including people living in the US who “want to go back to their country”.
But the US president made no reference to new elections in Venezuela, as he focused instead on a move to unleash the country’s vast oil reserves with a flood of investments from American energy groups.
“We’re going to have our very large United States 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,” he said.
American allies celebrated the exit of Maduro but were guarded about US plans to take control of the South American country, and raised questions about the legality of Trump’s actions under international law.
“The UK has long supported a transition of power in Venezuela. We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate President and we shed no tears about the end of his regime,” said British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, stressing his “support for international law”.
“The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” Starmer said.
Top Republicans including vice-president JD Vance defended the legality of the move, which was not approved by the US Congress and has been criticised by Democrats.
New York’s democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani called the capture of Maduro an “act of war” and a “violation of federal and international law”.
Maduro was transported to the Iwo Jima, a US Navy ship, and was then flown to New York to face charges of narco-terrorism in the Southern District of New York.
What follows for Venezuela, where years of political and economic turmoil have impoverished the country, remains unclear — including who will emerge from the power vacuum to rule Caracas.
Following the attack, the country’s vice-president Delcy Rodríguez appeared on state television on Saturday afternoon alongside the country’s defence and foreign ministers, calling for Maduro and his wife to be released from US custody.
“We will defend the dignity of a people that cannot be given away,” Rodríguez said. “We will not be anyone’s colony; what is being done to Venezuela is barbaric.”
But Trump said she had spoken to Rubio and had no other option but to co-operate with the US.
“She said ‘we’ll do whatever you need’. She was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice,” Trump said.
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