Venezuela’s toppled leader Nicolás Maduro was in a New York detention centre on Sunday awaiting drug charges after PresidentDonald Trumpordered an audacious raid to capture him, saying the US would take control of theoil-producing nation. The image of the63-year-old Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduroblindfolded and handcuffed en route to the US has stunned Venezuelans and was Washington’s mostcontroversial intervention in Latin Americasince the invasion of Panama 37 years ago. Maduro, who wished his captors a “Happy New Year” on arrival, is due to appear in a Manhattan court on Monday.
At home, hisallies were still in chargeand denounced their leader’s “kidnapping” as part of an imperialist oil grab. Streets were far quieter than usual on Sunday as Venezuelans anxiously discussed what would come next. Some stocked up on essentials, but many simply sheltered indoors.
“I’ve just taken the dog out and it feels like an abandoned city, people are shut inside,” said Alejandra Palencia, 35, a psychologist in the city of Maracay. With memories of painful US interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, manyworld leaders were staggeredat Trump’s move, even though Maduro’s standing was low given his autocratic rule and substantial evidence of vote-rigging. Trump said the US would, for now, manage the South American nation of about 30 million people plusits oil reserves, the largest in the world.
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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, hailingthe extraordinary extraction of Madurojust as he was at the door of a safe room. To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition and diaspora, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader andNobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machadotaking over, saying she lacked support. Machado was banned from standing in Venezuela’s 2024 election and has said herally Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia(76) who overwhelmingly won that vote, according to the opposition and some international observers, should now take the presidency.
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