Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by the United States over the weekend and removed from the country. He and his wife, Cilia Flores, were brought to New York, where on Monday, the ousted leader faced a U.S. District Court judge.
They were indicted on narcoterrorism charges as the Trump administration escalated its pressure campaign on Venezuela to curb the flow of drugs coming into the U.S.
Here’s what you need to know and where things will go from here:
Legality of the attack and details of capture
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Maduro had been captured and removed from Venezuela. He shared that the U.S. military had carried out a “large scale strike” against Venezuela to capture Maduro and Flores.
The operation took about two hours, lasting into the very early hours of Saturday morning. It involved 150 aircraft that dismantled the Venezuelan air defenses so helicopters could land troops on the ground where Maduro was located, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday.
Trump noted in his address that not a single U.S. life was lost and not one piece of military equipment was lost in the capture. He said the military was prepared to conduct a “second wave” that would have been “much bigger” had the first attempt to capture him been unsuccessful. Two U.S. officials told the Times that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the attack.
At least 80 people were killed in the U.S. operation, the Times reported, and Cuban state media confirmed that 32 Cubans were among the dead.
The U.S. said the legal authority for the attack is similar to the nation’s justification for the invasion of Panama that led to the seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1990.
Writing for The Free Press, Yale law professor Jed Rubenfeld said, “Under current U.S. doctrine and precedent, what President Donald Trump just did in Venezuela is almost certainly legal; in fact, the U.S. did the very same thing in Panama four decades ago, and the courts upheld it after years of litigation and careful consideration. But Trump’s plan to ‘run’ Venezuela for the foreseeable future, declared at a press conference earlier today, is much murkier.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week that telling Congress ahead of the operation “wasn’t necessary because this was not an invasion.”
“We didn’t occupy a country. This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation,” Rubio continued. “(Maduro) was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights, and removed from the country.”
Maduro in New York jail
Maduro and his wife appeared in federal court on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty.
“I’m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country,” he told the judge.
It was the start of a likely long legal battle over the leader’s actions. Maduro was represented by attorney Barry J. Pollack, who secured the release of Julian Assange. It was a strategic hire by Maduro due to Pollack’s success in related national security cases.
Pollack told the judge that Maduro is the “head of a sovereign state and entitled to the privilege” that the status should require. He said there were questions about the United States’ legality in abducting Maduro.
His next court date was set for March 17.
Why did the U.S. act?
Maduro’s capture came after months of escalation. The U.S. military has been targeting boats off Venezuela’s coast since September and has killed more than 100 people.
The Trump administration has said the strikes are an effort to curb the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S., and also to push back on foreign powers who were using the country to project strength in the American hemisphere. The administration has said the attacks were similar to targeting terrorists, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth comparing the alleged drug traffickers to al-Qaida.
María Corina Machado, who was named the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was an opposition leader in Venezuela and tried to achieve a democratic transition of power with Maduro. She was barred by Maduro from running in 2024.
Maduro claimed he won the 2024 election without providing evidence. Many foreign countries declined to recognize him as the elected leader of Venezuela, including the United States.
When Machado publicized the vote counts that showed Maduro had clearly lost the race, she made international headlines and frustrated Maduro.
Since the election, Machado has had to live in hiding out of fear of retaliation from the president. She was recently seen in Norway, where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Maduro’s political rise to power was shaped by Hugo Chávez, the former president who died in 2013. Under both leaders poverty among Venezuelans became widespread, leading to mass migration out of the country. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, at least 7.9 million Venezuelans have fled.
Trump celebrated Maduro’s capture on Saturday and said there were many happy Venezuelans, including those who are in the U.S. and would wish to return to their home country.
Trump also shared that the military action will allow oil companies to tap into Venezuela’s vast reserves and sell “large amounts” to other countries. Hegseth said in the press conference from Mar-a-Lago that the president was “deadly serious” about getting back the oil that was “stolen from us.”
Vice President JD Vance also shared that the “stolen oil must be returned to the United States.”
Venezuela appropriated billions of dollars in American oil company assets after Chavez came to power.
New leader coming soon
After the attack, Trump said the United States would temporarily “run” and be “in charge” of Venezuela while a peaceful transfer of power happened.
Trump later suggested that his plans included pressure on Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to hold elections.
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said.
Asked by the New York Post if helping run Venezuela meant U.S. troops would be deployed to the country, Trump said no, as long as the vice president “does what we want.”
Still, there is uncertainty about the legality of the U.S. possibly running Venezuela. A former State Department lawyer told The New York Times that if that happened, it would be “like an illegal occupation under international law.”
Trump was asked about the possibility of Machado being involved in the post-Maduro administration, and he said while she was a “very nice woman,” she doesn’t have the “support within or the respect within the country.”
Trump has mentioned Venezuelan leader Edmundo González, who is said to have won the 2024 election.
Reaction from other nations
Venezuela’s allies, including Russia and China, condemned Maduro’s arrest. China said it was “deeply shocked” that the U.S. used force against a sovereign country and its leader. Iran said the strikes on Venezuela were a “flagrant violation” of Venezuela’s sovereignty, the BBC reported.
Allies of the U.S., however, supported the seizure. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would “shed no tears” over seeing the Maduro regime fall.
Trump also appeared to set his sights on leaders other countries with similar issues. Aboard Air Force One, he told reporters that Colombia is run by a “very sick” man.
“A sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said, not explaining what he meant by that statement when asked. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it.”
Asked if the U.S. would consider an operation in Colombia, the president replied “it sounds good to me. You know why? Because they kill a lot of people.”