Trump Says US Will Run Venezuela after Maduro Seized

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venezuela's toppled leader Nicolas Maduro was in a New York detention centre on Sunday 4 January 2025 awaiting drug charges after President Donald Trump ordered an audacious raid to capture him, saying the US would take control of the oil-producing nation.

The image of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed en route to the US has stunned Venezuelans and was Washington's most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago. He is due to appear in a Manhattan court on Monday.

With memories of painful US interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many world leaders were staggered at Trump's move, even though Maduro's standing was low given his autocratic rule and substantial evidence of vote-rigging.

US TO RUN VENEZUELA UNTIL TRANSITION, TRUMP SAYS

Trump said the US would for now manage the South American nation of about 30 million people plus its oil reserves, the largest in the world. But he gave few details of how. "We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he told a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, hailing the extraordinary extraction of Maduro just as he was at the door of a safe room.

Maduro allies remain in charge in Caracas and have denounced his "kidnapping". To the disappointment of Venezuela's opposition and diaspora, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.

Machado was banned from standing in Venezuela's 2024 election and has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, who overwhelmingly won that vote according to the opposition and some international observers, should now take the presidency.

DIASPORA CELEBRATES MADURO'S EXIT

Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela's economy nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world's biggest exoduses.

They were largely jubilant at the exit of Maduro, whose security forces repeatedly crushed opposition protests. The former union leader, bus driver and foreign minister was the dying Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor as president in 2013.

"We are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen and that we have a free country," said Khaty Yanez, who lives in the Chilean capital Santiago.

Trump says Maduro masterminded the flow of drugs into the US and was illegitimately in power due to vote-rigging.

He denies those claims and top officials in Caracas have demanded his release, accusing the US of an imperial lust for Venezuela's oil and mineral riches.

'ONLY ONE PRESIDENT: MADURO', SAYS RODRIGUEZ

"There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolas Maduro," Delcy Rodriguez, who took over Venezuela's interim presidency, said in a defiant message to the US despite Trump's assertions she was open to working with them.

US Special Forces swooped in on helicopters to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores under darkness in the early hours of Saturday after strikes on military installations in Caracas and elsewhere.

While many Western allies oppose Maduro and say he stole Venezuela's 2024 election, there were numerous calls for the US to respect international law and resolve the crisis diplomatically. 

There were also questions over the legality of an operation to seize the head of state of a foreign power, while Democrats said they were misled during recent Congress briefings and demanded a plan for what is to follow.

Trump said as part of the takeover, major US oil companies would move back into Venezuela and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure, a process experts said could take years. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground," he added. 

A plane carrying Maduro landed near New York City on Saturday night, and he was helicoptered to the city before being taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Images released by US authorities showed him being led down a hallway at the offices of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, where he was heard wishing a "happy New Year."

Indicted in 2020 on various federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, Maduro is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday.

TRUMP'S VENEZUELA PLAN MAY ALIENATE SUPPORTERS

It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela where a court ordered Rodriguez, Maduro's vice president, to assume the interim presidency.

In Venezuela, there was a rush for groceries and fuel as people wondered what would come next. 

Maduro opponents were fearful of celebrating while some of his supporters held small rallies. Soldiers patrolled some parts. 

The UN Security Council planned to meet on Monday to discuss the US move, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as "a dangerous precedent." Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, criticized the US.

"China firmly opposes such hegemonic behaviour by the US, 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.

Trump's comments about an open-ended military presence in Venezuela echoed the rhetoric around past invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which ended in American withdrawals after years of costly occupation and thousands of US casualties.

A US occupation "won't cost us a penny" because the US would be reimbursed from "money coming out of the ground," Trump said, referring to Venezuela's oil, a subject he returned to repeatedly during Saturday's press conference.

Trump’s focus on foreign affairs provides fuel for Democrats to criticise him ahead of midterm congressional elections in November, when control of both houses of Congress is at stake, with Republicans holding both by narrow margins.

Trump also runs the risk of alienating some of his own supporters, who have backed his "America First" agenda and oppose foreign interventions.