U.S. Captures Venezuela’s President

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But what of the vice president of Venezualan country.And his armed forces .. And what of the previously legally elected president ?

President Donald Trump said in an interview with the New York Post that U.S. troops would not be on the ground in Venezuela — as long as the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, “does what we want.”

The New York Post reported that it asked Trump if U.S. troops would “be on the ground helping run the country.”

“No, if Maduro’s vice president — if the vice president does what we want, we won’t have to do that,” Trump said.

Trump also told the Post: “We’ve spoken to her numerous times, and she understands. She understands.”

Rodríguez said in an address today that Nicolás Maduro is the country’s only president. She said that the Venezuelan people would be “nobody’s slave and nobody’s colony.”

^^^ If its about drugs coming into the US then why are Mexican drug cartels allowed to flourish and literally run the Mexican government?

President Donald Trump gave the Venezuelan leader one last chance to step down.

In a private phone call a week ago, Trump told Nicolás Maduro that he had to go.

By that point, an armada of U.S. warships was floating off Venezuela’s shores. A CIA team had crept into the country, tracking Maduro’s movements and habits: where he slept, what he ate, where he traveled.

“You got to surrender,” Trump said, recalling the conversation at a news conference Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Maduro took the gamble of his life. He “came close” to giving in, Trump said, but stayed put.

That act of defiance set in motion the final phase of a secret and risky plan to evict Maduro by force. At 10:46 p.m. ET Friday, Trump gave the final order to launch.

This account of “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the most audacious military action in either of Trump’s terms, is based on interviews with more than a dozen White House, administration and congressional officials, as well as public statements.

As early as August, the CIA quietly sent a small unit into Venezuela with the goal of providing “extraordinary insight” into Maduro’s movements, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Even his pets were known to U.S. intelligence agents, Dan “Raizin” Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the news conference Saturday.

Elite troops trained for months, going so far as to use a replica of the presidential compound based on intelligence that the U.S. had gathered, Trump said in an interview with Fox News — the same way the troops who killed Osama bin Laden practiced in 2011 with a model of his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They trained with what Trump called “massive blowtorches” in case they had to cut through steel walls in Maduro’s safe room.

At the same time, a core Trump administration team worked privately on the project for months, holding regular meetings and phone calls and briefing Trump, a person knowledgeable about the matter said

That group consisted of some of the people Trump said will now be running Venezuela, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the person said.

Throughout the fall, Trump steadily amped up the pressure on Maduro. In September, the Trump administration began sinking boats in the Caribbean that it alleged were sending drugs to the U.S. Experts said, however, that the boats were shipping cocaine to Europe. All told, the administration has struck at least 35 alleged drug vessels so far, killing 114 people.

The rationale for the boat strikes shifted over time. Was it drugs Trump wanted to destroy, or the Maduro regime? In an interview she gave Vanity Fair in November, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said the purpose was to attack the boats until Maduro “cries uncle.”

She also said in the interview that an attack on the Venezuela mainland would require congressional approval — something the White House hasn’t gotten.

“If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress,” Wiles told the author, Chris Whipple.

The same month, America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, swept into the Caribbean, part of a military buildup that Trump believed got the attention of Maduro.

“A lot of ships out there,” Trump said at the news conference.

Trump left the White House for the holidays on Dec. 19, with Mar-a-Lago serving as his headquarters for the final planning. He approved the operation before Christmas, though the exact day was uncertain, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning.

Venezuela wasn’t his only worry. On Christmas Day, he announced he had ordered strikes on militants in Nigeria in response to alleged persecution of Christians.

At a New Year’s Eve party at his home, dressed in a tuxedo with first lady Melania Trump at his side, Trump was asked by reporters about his resolution for 2026.

“Peace on Earth,” he said.

So secret was the Venezuela assault that even the precise timing wasn’t widely known at the Pentagon until Friday night, two U.S. officials told NBC News. Typically, the timing of such a military operation would have wider coordination.

Vice President JD Vance went to Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach and met with him during the day Friday to discuss the strikes. But he left before the attack started, in deference to concerns that a late-night motorcade movement might tip off the Venezuelans about the coming raid, a Vance spokesperson said.

Wind and cloud cover in Caracas had delayed the attack for days, but Friday, the weather broke. The moon was full, and the skies had mostly cleared — acceptable conditions for the pilots and crews.

The mission was on.

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Trump told military leaders, words they transmitted down the chain, Caine said.

Trump spent much of the night and early morning at his home watching the attack play out. A picture released by the White House shows him sitting at a table, fingers interlocked, wearing a jacket but not his customary tie, staring intently at what presumably was a video screen out of the frame. Standing to his left is Rubio; to his right, Ratcliffe. Miller is seated, arms crossed. Congress wouldn’t be notified until the attack was underway. Trump said Saturday he didn’t want lawmakers to leak details.

At least 150 aircraft flew toward Caracas from 20 different bases on land and sea. The fleet included bombers, fighters and craft that specialized in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, Caine said. The crews ranged in age from 20 to 49.

Darkness cloaked the Venezuelan capital. Trump suggested that the U.S. had cut the electricity in Caracas to gain an edge in the battle. Flying at 100 feet above the water, helicopters carried the special forces and law enforcement officials who plucked Maduro from his residence, Caine said. Other aircraft fired weapons to disable Venezuela’s air defense systems and clear a path for the helicopters, he added.

Flames were seen billowing from explosions at Fort Tiuna, a large military complex in Caracas.

By 1 a.m. ET Saturday, U.S. soldiers had reached the compound in Caracas where Maduro was staying. “A heavily fortified military fortress,” Trump called it.

When Delta Force breached Maduro’s residence, he and his wife were taken “completely by surprise,” Caine said. Maduro tried to escape into what Trump described as a steel safe room but didn’t make it in time. The forces took Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, into custody.

A firefight broke out after Maduro was captured, Caine said, and a U.S. helicopter was hit. No Americans were killed, though there were several injuries to U.S. troops, all of whom are stable, according to a U.S. official and a White House official.

By 3:30 a.m. ET, U.S. forces were safely out of the country, Caine said. At that time, the air in Caracas smelled of gunpowder and smoke. The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela cautioned American citizens there to shelter in place.

Less than an hour later, Trump broke the news to the world on social media.

By 4:30 p.m. ET, Maduro was in New York. He arrived at Stewart Airport in New Windsor north of New York City. Dozens of law enforcement officers flanked Maduro as he shuffled to the hangar. He and his wife were to be transported to a jail in New York City later in the day. On Monday, Maduro is expected to make his first court appearance.

He and his alleged co-conspirators face prosecution for a scheme in which a “cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States," the indictment alleges.

Following the strike, Trump made it clear that “Operation Absolute Resolve” wasn’t a one-off. Nor was it solely about apprehending someone the U.S. considers a fugitive. The military campaign amounts to a dramatic escalation of presidential authority, with Trump attempting to mold the hemisphere to a revised version of “America First” foreign policy.

In a twist on the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which asserted a distinct sphere of influence for the young American nation, Trump is demonstrating that he’ll use hard power to promote U.S. interests and create advantageous conditions for business.

“The Donroe Doctrine,” Trump called it.

By capturing Venezuela’s president, Washington sent shockwaves felt far beyond Caracas.

The United States stunned the world on Saturday by launching military strikes in Venezuela and seizing President Nicolás Maduro, swiftly ending his 13-year rule in an operation the Trump administration framed as a demonstration of American power, as President Donald Trump boasted that the U.S. possessed “capabilities and skills our enemies can scarcely imagine.”

America’s adversaries heard him the loudest.

Russia and China swiftly condemned the strikes and called for the release of Maduro, who has been brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges. Iran and Cuba denounced what they called a violation of international law, their objections carrying an edge of unease that they, too, could find themselves in Washington’s sights.

Even major European allies, more cautious and measured in tone, carefully signaled concern about the operation’s legality while largely aligning with the U.S. on policy.

Taken together, these responses suggest the revival of old fears of American interventionism, prompting allies and adversaries alike to ponder where Washington might act next.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise to "demolish foreign drug cartels" by going after Maduro. She said on X that the operation would "keep our citizens safe" in keeping with Trump's “America First” agenda.

For Tehran, the fall of a close ally comes as it grapples with internal unrest of its own, just a day after Trump warned Iran it could face U.S. action if protesters were harmed.

“The American military attack on Venezuela is a clear violation of the basic principles of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental rules of international law,” it said in a statement published by Iran’s semiofficial news agency Tasnim on Telegram.

In Havana, Cuba’s leadership labeled the attack “state terrorism,” acutely aware that both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have openly questioned how long the Cuban government itself should remain untouched.

Rubio’s “primary interest is in Cuba, not in Venezuela,” said Michael Paarlberg, a senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy, noting that Rubio sees Venezuela “as the chief patron of the Cuban regime.”

Asked during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether the Trump administration’s next target is the Cuban government, Rubio said that “the Cuban government is a huge problem.”

He said: “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.

The use of military force to remove Venezuela’s president is effectively a “kidnapping” and violates core principles of the United Nations Charter, said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School.

“If you detain someone unlawfully, if you take someone into your custody and you do not have the legal right to do that, then what else would you call it?” she told NBC News.

“The U.N. Charter makes it very clear that there are very few times when a country has the right to carry out military force on the territory of another country,” she added. “And it never has the right to do that in order to bring an individual out to stand trial before their courts.”

Many European allies struck a careful balance, nodding to international law but without dissent in an effort to avoid upsetting the U.S.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country would “shed no tears” about the end of Maduro’s regime before reiterating his “support for international law,” without saying what that support entails.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the operation “complex,” and said his country “will take our time,” to evaluate it, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she supported a peaceful and democratic transition of power, and that “any solution must respect international law and the U.N. Charter.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the military operation in Venezuela “contravenes the principle of non-use of force, which underpins international law,” while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said it violated international law.

But as reactions to the Venezuela strike largely fell along predictable lines, the precedent it sets has left others wondering how vulnerable they might be, said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London.

“European countries were counting on the U.S. and certain types of U.S. behavior that perhaps they can’t do anymore,” he told NBC News, noting that Denmark had been careful in its response because “they know that Greenland is in the firing line.”

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of buying or taking Greenland, treating it as a strategic asset for the U.S. in the Arctic.

Denmark’s ambassador to Washington, Jesper Møller Sørensen, shared what he said was a “friendly reminder” on X Saturday that “we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” pushing back at Trump-aligned figures who had raised the issue in the wake of the Venezuela strike.

Many of the reactions to the Venezuela strike, Hellyer noted, “have very little to do with Maduro and have everything to do with, you know, lining up with the U.S. on a particular issue.” Europe, he said, was “expressing support for international law, but without wanting to be identified as opposing the U.S.,” raising the question: “What’s the point of invoking a system that isn’t backed by the strongest power in the world?”

But recent history shows that even as the rules-based order struggles, the U.S. has frequently acted unilaterally, with the Venezuela strike reflecting enduring patterns of intervention in Latin America, according to retired Col. Gregory A. Daddis.

“In many ways, U.S. actions in Venezuela follow a long history of American interventionism in the Western Hemisphere,” he said, “where we have argued that the Western Hemisphere, in its entirety, falls within our jurisdiction to protect U.S. interests.”

Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty on Monday in their first New York court appearance after the U.S. captured them in a surprise attack.

Both are charged in the U.S. with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.

Maduro, who called himself the president of Venezuela, said he was "kidnapped" and "captured" from his home in Caracas, Venezuela. "I am a prisoner of war," he added in Spanish. Flores also described herself as the first lady of Venezuela in court.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. is "in charge" of Venezuela and warned its interim leader to cooperate or pay a "very big price."

Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro, has been sworn in as the country’s new president in the capital, Caracas.

Trump has said America will tap into Venezuela's vast oil reserves. He has also issued new threats against Colombia, Mexico and Greenland and predicted Cuba's regime will fall.

Venezuela orders police to arrest anyone involved in supporting U.S. attack
Venezuela's government has ordered police to “immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack by the United States,” according to a text of the decree published on Monday.

The decree has been in force since Saturday when a state of emergency was put in place after the U.S. attack that ousted President Nicolas Maduro. But was published in full on Monday

In the wake of the extraordinary U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, the international spotlight has fallen on Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s interim leader and a key player in an explosive geopolitical drama.

President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that Rodríguez had been “sworn in” as president and stood “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Rodríguez has sent mixed signals, however, insisting that Maduro remains Venezuela’s “only president,” while also pledging to “collaborate” with the Trump administration.

Rodríguez’s de facto leadership of Venezuela caps a remarkable political ascent for an official who has served in a variety of roles under the governments of both the late socialist President Hugo Chávez and Maduro, who once called her a “tiger” for her vociferous defense of his left-wing authoritarian regime.

Revolutionary roots
Rodríguez was born in Caracas on May 18, 1969. She is the daughter of Marxist guerrilla fighter Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a co-founder of the Socialist League, a militant revolutionary party that was particularly active in the 1970s.

Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the 1976 kidnapping of American businessman William F. Niehous. The elder Rodríguez died in police custody at the age of 34. The saga became a foundational memory for his daughter and one of the raisons d’etre for her political career.

“The revolution is our revenge for the death of our father and his executioners,” Delcy Rodríguez was quoted as telling a Venezuelan politician in 2018, referring to Chávez’s socialist political program.

She has close political ties with her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, a psychiatrist by training who serves as president of the National Assembly, the country’s unicameral legislature. He was the country’s vice president under Chávez, who died in 2013.

Extensive resume
Rodríguez is a lawyer by training who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 1993. She went on to study labor law in Paris and social sciences in London before launching her Venezuelan political career in the early 2000s.

She held various low-profile positions in the Chávez regime before taking on a more visible profile as communication and information minister in 2013. Then came the job of foreign minister, from 2014 to 2017, as well as a role heading the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly.

Rodríguez’s loyalty to Maduro earned her influence and stature, according to Ryan C. Berg, the director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. It was the principal reason why she was “handpicked” for the vice presidency in June 2018, making her second in the country’s line of succession, Berg said.

“She has survived in multiple positions because of her ability to exercise power effectively within that regime,” Berg told NBC News.

In a post on social media announcing Rodríguez’s ascension to the vice presidency, Maduro described her as “a young woman, brave, seasoned, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles.”

In recent years, Rodríguez added even more responsibilities to her vice presidential portfolio, taking on roles as finance and oil minister. The latter gave her oversight over Venezuela’s most crucial business sector and coveted export — and tested her resolve as she attempted to deal with severe U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil industry and the toll of inflation.

Rodríguez has never faced U.S. criminal charges, though she was sanctioned by the first Trump administration for the role she allegedly played in squashing political dissent in Venezuela.

Uncertainty ahead
It remains to be seen whether Rodríguez will stay in power, and the rhetoric from the leaders of both Venezuela and the U.S. has fluctuated since Maduro’s stunning capture.

Trump said Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in contact with Rodríguez, describing her as “gracious” and willing to work with the American government as it prosecutes Maduro on narco-terrorism charges in New York.

In a televised address, Rodríguez struck a more antagonistic tone, reportedly blasting the “extremists” in the Trump administration and insisting that Maduro was Venezuela’s rightful leader despite his capture and indictment by the U.S. government.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” Rodríguez said, according to The Associated Press.

In a post on Instagram on Sunday, Rodríguez used far more diplomatic language, emphasizing the need for a more “balanced and respectful relationship” between Venezuela and the U.S.

“We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperation agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez wrote in part.

Trump then presented a stark warning to Rodríguez, telling a reporter for The Atlantic: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

But even if Rodríguez’s interim role turns into a more permanent position, she will still need to fortify her political standing inside Venezuela and what remains of the Maduro regime, according to Berg.

“She does not enjoy support from some of the main factions” in Venezuela, Berg said, “and most importantly, she’ll have to consolidate support over the armed forces.”

Donald Trump acknowledged that he informed oil companies about his plans to attack Venezuela and abduct its leader, despite not bothering to notify Congress.

"Billionaire Trump Makes Jaw-Dropping Admission About Who He Tipped Off Before His Invasion"

Anyone remember the invasion of Iraq? just substitute drugs for weapons of mass destruction and you have history repeating - fabricated pretext to protect US oil commercial oil interests

Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers this week on a new legal opinion justifying the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who are facing narcotics charges in federal court in New York.

The opinion comes from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, according to lawmakers who spoke to NBC News. The lawmakers hadn’t seen details yet, but said it sought to give legal justification for the raid and capture. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the new opinion.

The office serves as a sort of in-house counsel for the federal government, providing legal justifications and opinions for the federal government. During the George W. Bush’s administration, it produced memos that provided the legal framework for the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, the office determined the administration had been legally justified in targeting Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and radical cleric who was killed in a 2011 drone strike.

More recently, the office has justified the boat strikes that have killed dozens of individuals the administration has said were engaged in drug trafficking.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately comment on the opinion.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche previously declined to say whether the office had weighed in on the Maduro operation, telling NBC News he was not “going to get into any discussions” that occurred but saying there was “no doubt what we did was legal.”

Blanche said the U.S. “has an absolute legal right to go and arrest people charged with horrible crimes,” and that “what we did was not only right and not only legal, but it’s what the American people expect us to do when we file charges against individuals like him.”

A lawmaker who was briefed on the matter told NBC News that Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion at a briefing and said it would be made available to lawmakers, but did not specify timing.

The Trump administration has suggested Maduro’s capture was a law enforcement operation, though it involved a military operation into a sovereign country. Legal experts say that such an operations violate international law, with United Nations experts stating the actions “represent a grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, set a dangerous precedent, and risk destabilizing the entire region and the world.