Maduro Arrives at New York for Trial After Dramatic U.S. Raid at Caracas

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela arrived on American soil to stand trial on drug and weapons-related charges late Saturday, hours after U.S. forces seized him in a daring raid on his secure compound in Caracas, multiple news outlets reported.Fox News and CNN, among others, said Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were on board a plane that arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York, shortly before 5 p.m. Live video, obscured by the dusk, appeared to show a hooded figure being escorted down the steps of the aircraft. His wife was not evident.The reports said Mr. Maduro would be taken to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters in Manhattan for booking and then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to await trial.The arrival concluded a day of rapid-fire developments featuring a hazardous military operation staffed by the full range of American military resources, but left haunting questions about the next steps for a country that President Trump says America will “run … until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to new leadership.U.S. forces stand ready to mount a “second and much larger” attack in the event of resistance, Mr. Trump said during a late morning press conference at his Mar-a-Lago retreat.“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over” who doesn’t have the best interests of the Venezuelan people in mind, he said, adding that “we want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela.”Mr. Trump also said America’s major oil companies would quickly enter Venezuela to restore and revitalize the country’s decrepit oil industry. “We will be selling large amounts of oil to other countries,” he said.Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier Saturday on X that Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York and that Mr. Maduro “has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Ms. Bondi wrote. Mr. Trump said the couple was on board a ship headed for New York but it has not yet been decided whether they will stand trial in New York or in Florida. The ship was later identified as the USS Iwo Jima.The president provided the first details of the operation in a morning phone interview with Fox News, explaining he and his aides had “watched every aspect” of the operation along with military leaders on a video feed at Mar-a-Lago.“It was extremely complex,” he said. “The whole maneuver, the landings, the number of aircraft which were a massive number, the number of helicopters, the different type of helicopters, different type of fighter jets — we had a different fighter jet for every possible situation.“And they just broke into places that were not really able to be broken into — you know steel doors that were put there for just this reason, and they got taken out in a matter of seconds.”The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan “Razin” Caine, said at the press conference that months of rehearsal and preparation went into the operation, which involved more than 150 aircraft launching from 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere.“Last night the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through — ocean, mountains, low cloud ceiling,” he said during a dramatic recounting of the operation.General Caine said some of the helicopters came under fire and that one was hit but remained flyable. He said there were multiple “self-defense engagements” as the force withdrew.Speaking to Fox, Mr. Trump said two service members had been wounded but are recovering and “in great shape.”Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez issued a statement saying an unspecified number of Venezuelan civilians and military members were killed.The action follows a months-long buildup of military and diplomatic pressure on Mr. Maduro, whom the Trump administration has portrayed as the kingpin of an international drug trafficking operation causing widespread death and hardship in America.The buildup included the deployment of major naval assets to the region, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and a series of attacks on suspected drug-running boats that has sunk at least 35 boats killed at least 115 people.Mr. Trump hinted that his government is likely to work with the remnants of the Maduro administration rather than seek to install a new government headed by this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado.He said the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had spoken with Ms. Rodríguez, who was sworn in to replace Mr. Maduro earlier Saturday. “She said ‘We will do whatever you need.’ I think she was quite gracious but she really doesn’t have a choice,” Mr. Trump said.Referring to Ms. Machado, he said it would be “very tough” for her to rule the country. “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” he said.Ms. Machado, who lived in hiding in Venezuela until emerging in Oslo to accept the Peace Prize, posted a triumphant message on X earlier Saturday, saying “Venezuelans, the hour of freedom has arrived.”Her party, the Democratic Unitary Platform, claims to have received two-thirds of the vote in a 2024 presidential election. She called on Venezuelans inside the country to prepare for instructions through official opposition channels and for those abroad to press their governments to support Venezuela’s reconstruction.“We have fought for years, we have given everything, and it has been worth the pain. What had to happen is happening,” she wrote. “Venezuela will be free.”One of the first international reactions to the capture came from Russia, a Maduro ally that is engaged in delicate negotiations with America over a potential Ukraine peace deal.“We call for immediate clarification of this situation. Such actions, if they did indeed take place, constitute an unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, respect for which is a key principle of international law,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.A renegade oil tanker being pursued by the U.S. Coast Guard since December 20 turned up on a Russian ship registry this week and was located Friday on a course that suggests it is headed for one of Russia’s Baltic Sea ports.Another Venezuelan ally, Cuba, denounced the capture as a “criminal” attack and called for urgent international reaction, Reuters reported. The statement from the Cuban presidency accused the United States of “state terrorism” and said what it described as a “zone of peace” was being “brutally assaulted.”The action was welcomed enthusiastically, however, by President Javier Milei of Argentina, a Trump ally, who greeted the capture with a trademark slogan: “Long live freedom, dammit!” Reuters posted video of Velezuelan refugees gathering with flags in the capital of Chile, Santiago, to celebrate Mr. Maduro’s ouster.It was the most audacious American action against the leader of a foreign country since U.S. forces invaded Panama in December 1989 to capture that country’s president. Manuel Noriega, who had also been indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States.That operation involved 27,000 American troops, lasted for two weeks, and left large areas of Panama City in ruins, displacing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people. Noriega spent the rest of his life in American, French and Panamanian prisons before dying in 2017.

Maduro Arrives at New York for Trial After Dramatic U.S. Raid at Caracas

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