Maduro reportedly arrives at New York court
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have arrived at a Manhattan court building, where the full list of charges against them will be read out later today, the BBC is reporting.
Key events
Edward Helmore
US vice-president JD Vance has addressed the apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s military operations in Venezuela and justifications based in part of an effort to curb the trafficking of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the US.
In a post on X on Sunday, Vance said he wanted to address claims that Venezuela “has nothing to do with drugs because most of the fentanyl comes from elsewhere”.
“First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was). Second, cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels,” he wrote. “If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too! Third, yes, a lot of fentanyl is coming out of Mexico. That continues to be a focus of our policy in Mexico and is a reason why President Trump shut the border on day one.”
Outgoing Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene raised the question of why the US was striking Venezuela if part of the purpose was to reduce fentanyl deaths in the US. (The administration said it was moving to list the synthetic opioid as a weapon of mass destruction.)
“The majority of American fentanyl overdoses and death come from Mexico,” Greene said. “Those are the Mexican cartels that are killing Americans. And so my pushback here is if this was really about narco-terrorists and about protecting Americans from cartels and drugs being brought into America, the Trump administration would be attacking the Mexican cartels.”
In his remarks, Vance said he’d seen “a lot of criticism” about oil.
He added: “About 20 years ago, Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narco-terrorist activities. I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing? Great powers don’t act like that. The United States, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, is a great power again. Everyone should take note”.
Here are some more angles of Nicolás Maduro heading to a Manhattan courthouse in his first appearance before a US federal judge. He’s seen here arriving at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport near Wall Street.
Victoria Bekiempis
Here is some more from my colleague Victoria Bekiempis, who is in New York:
David Cardenas, a Venezuelan who said he’s a member of an opposition group, was outside waiting for proceedings.
“We were waiting for this it seems like 20 years ago, 25 years ago – since [Hugo] Chavez.”
Cardenas described Maduro’s capture as a turning of the tables. “He was laughing about me and my group, he said please don’t cry when [they] come for you … who is crying now?”
What charges do Maduro and his wife face?
The indictment alleged Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders have, for more than 25 years, “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”
The indictment alleged Maduro and his allies “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to major drug trafficking groups, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang. These criminal organizations sent profits to high-ranking officials who protected them in exchange, the justice department said.
Among other specific acts, Maduro is accused of selling Venezuelan diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers and facilitating flights under diplomatic cover to bring drug proceeds back from Mexico to Venezuela.
Maduro was indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, an office within the justice department known for its aggressive prosecutions.
The same prosecutor’s office returned an indictment against Maduro in 2020, with the same four charges. The updated indictment made public on Saturday adds some new details and co-defendants, including Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.
The first lady is accused of ordering kidnappings and murders, as well as accepting bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between drug traffickers and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office.
Maduro reportedly arrives at New York court
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have arrived at a Manhattan court building, where the full list of charges against them will be read out later today, the BBC is reporting.
Victoria Bekiempis
Hours before Nicolás Maduro’s expected appearance in Manhattan federal court for alleged narco-terrorism, the sidewalk outside this courthouse was busy with press eager to snag a seat in the courtroom.
Just after 7 am, the line of journalists extended one block down Worth Street, a queue comparable to that of other large cases such as the murder proceedings against Luigi Mangione, or the sex trafficking trial against Ghislaine Maxwell.
As of 30 minutes ago, there weren’t any visible demonstrators or even members of the public with signs voicing their opinions about Maduro’s capture. But, it’s also bone chillingly cold.
Maduro pictured on his way to courthouse in Manhattan
We have a picture through on the newswires which apparently shows Nicolás Maduro on his way to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Manhattan US Courthouse, where he is due to make an initial appearance on drugs and weapons charges in a couple of hours.
The court appearance will be largely procedural, but will start what will probably be a protracted legal battle.
As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime – including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers.
Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.
Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, is also due to make an initial appearance at the Manhattan federal court today.
Major news outlets postponed reporting Venezuela raid – Semafor reports
The New York Times and Washington Post learned of the US raid on Venezuela shortly before it was due to be launched on Friday night, but did not publish anything immediately to avoid compromising the military operation and endangering American soldiers, Semafor reports, citing two sources.
Along with much of the so-called “mainstream media” Trump has attacked the journalism of both outlets as his administration continues waging an assault on the traditional news industry at a time when it is declining.
But despite the open hostility, both outlets, according to Semafor, postponed publishing their stories for several hours after the Trump administration reportedly said coverage could have exposed US troops performing the operation, which took two hours and 28 minutes to carry out.
Spokespeople for the White House, the Pentagon, and the Washington Post did not offer a comment on discussions between reporters and officials on Friday evening, and a spokesperson for the NYT did not offer an immediate response to an approach by Semafor. We have not yet been able to independently verify its reporting.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the German government has said that the US must “explain to the international community on what basis the actions we have witnessed over the last few days should be judged, and this has not yet happened”.
Germany’s foreign ministry has said it has been in close contact with the embassy in Caracas and a travel warning has been issued.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz previously said that Nicolás Maduro had “led his country to ruin”, but called the deadly US military operation legally “complex”.
China calls for Nicolás Maduro’s immediate release
China’s foreign ministry has condemned the US’s military actions in Venezuela as a violation of international law and has denounced the use of force against a sovereign country and its president. Beijing has urged the US to release Nicolás Maduro – who will appear in a New York court later today – and his wife, Cilia Flores, immediately.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told journalists this morning that Beijing maintains a “positive communication and cooperation” with the Venezuelan government and China has said it is monitoring the situation closely.
Analysts have warned that the US attack on Venezuela could embolden China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea.
Venezuela’s new (interim) leader Delcy Rodríguez to be sworn in
Delcy Rodríguez is due to be officially sworn in as Venezuela’s president shortly (at 08:00 local time; 12:00 GMT) after the country’s supreme court designated her as interim president over the weekend.
She had pledged loyalty to Nicolás Maduro on Saturday and condemned his capture as an “atrocity”, but on Sunday called for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the US, which has warned they might make a fresh military intervention if she does not accommodate their demands.
Speaking to the Atlantic, Donald Trump said on Sunday: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
As my colleague Rory Carroll notes in this story, Rodríguez, 56, is a political veteran who served as Maduro’s vice-president and oil minister and defended the regime against accusations of terrorism, drug-running and election-stealing, yet for now she is Trump’s favoured option to lead Venezuela.
She reportedly has the backing of the military, along with ministers including those in the interior and defence departments.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has been urged by opposition parties and many of his MPs to condemn the US military action in Venezuela.
Starmer, who has a background as a human rights lawyer, has been repeatedly accused of kowtowing to the Trump administration, wanting to keep on side of Washington for economic and security reasons.
He has refused to condemn the military operation, or comment on its legality, saying he needs all the “facts’” at his disposal before coming to a judgment.
Emily Thornberry, a senior Labour MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee told the BBC the attack was “not a legal action”, adding that the UK and its allies should jointly say “we cannot have breaches of international law like this. We cannot have the law of the jungle.”
“We condemn Putin for doing it. We need to make clear that Donald Trump shouldn’t be doing it either,” Thornberry said.
Jason Rodrigues
Jason Rodrigues is a researcher and writer in the Guardian’s research department
President Donald Trump has made no secret of the US’s intention to exploit Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world.
Reported in the Guardian in 1979 (below), untapped oil from the Orinoco River oil belt was estimated at 500bn barrels by the Venezuelan state owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela in a paper submitted to a UN energy conference in Montreal.
At the time of the discovery, total global proven oil reserves were thought to be around 600bn barrels.
The significant find was seen by Venezuela as a way out of the country’s long term economic decline, with productivity forecast to drop significantly over the following decade.
This optimism was tempered, however, by oil experts who were keen to point out that huge investment would be required to exploit the Orinoco belt, due to the difficult terrain and the unusually heavy oil, which requires costly refining.
To date, Venezuela has only pumped a fraction of its potential production, say industry experts.
Denmark’s prime minister. Mette Frederiksen, yesterday urged Donald Trump to stop threatening to take over Greenland after the president said the US “absolutely” needs the territory.
On Sunday, Trump, who sees Greenland as strategically important for defence and as a future source of mineral wealth, told The Atlantic magazine in an interview: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One this morning, the president said he would revisit the topic in a few weeks.
Frederiksen has stressed that Denmark “and thus Greenland” was part of Nato and therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee.
France, Norway and Spain were among the European countries who said Donald Trump had broken international rules after US troops carried out the deadly military operation on Saturday morning.
Most European statements followed a predictable line of leaders calling for de-escalation and saying they were following the situation closely, without directly commenting on the legality of the American attack.
Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni was among the outliers who publicly praised the military operation. She said the US’s actions were “legitimate”, despite previously stating that “external military action is not the way to end totalitarian regimes”.
Meloni – who has a close relationship with Donald Trump – has said she had a phone call with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Sunday (Machado has been saying for months that the opposition is ready to run the country).
Both Meloni and Machado were said to have agreed that Maduro’s exit would foster the conditions for a peaceful and democratic “transition”.
Meloni’s office said in a statement:
The President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, had a telephone conversation today with Maria Corina Machado on the prospects for a peaceful and democratic transition in Venezuela.
During the call, it was agreed that Maduro’s exit opens a new chapter of hope for the people of Venezuela, who will be able to once again enjoy the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law.
We have some comments from the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei who has given his views on the motivations behind the US attack on Venezuela.
The US operation in Caracas – viewed by many observers as an illegal action against a sovereign country – has likely caused anxiety to the government in Iran, against which Donald Trump has expressed enthusiasm for taking radical action.
Tensions are particularly high between Washington and Tehran as Trump has recently threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators taking part in protests over the country’s economy.
During a press conference, Baghaei has been quoted by Al Jazeera as having said: “In the past decades, interventions were justified under slogans such as democracy and human rights. Today, they openly say the issue is Venezuela’s oil.”
“Claims that another country can run Venezuela are unacceptable to any nation, including the Venezuelan people, and reflect a return to colonial-era thinking.”
32 Cubans killed during US attack on Venezuela, Cuban government says
In our opening post, we mentioned that Cuba said that 32 of its citizens had been killed in the US operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Venezuela and bring them to America. We can bring you a bit more information about this now.
The Cuban government said the 32 people who were killed were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies, with two days of national mourning declared.
A government statement read:
Our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of bombings on the facilities.
Cuba, a strong ally of Venezuela, has provided some security for Maduro since he came to power. It was not clear how many Cubans were guarding the Venezuelan president when they died and how many may were killed elsewhere.
Venezuela has not officially confirmed how many people were killed during the audacious US attack on Maduro’s compound in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Saturday.
But the New York Times reported that at least 40 people, including civilians and soldiers, were killed in the attack. The estimate came from a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
