Maduro taken to New York court to face narco-terrorism charges

Igor Girkin, a former commander of Russian proxy forces in east Ukraine, said that the operation showed how a “great power should act in response to emerging threats before they become too serious and insurmountable”.

“Once again, our image has taken a hit,” said Girkin, who is currently serving a jail sentence. “Another country that was counting on Russia’s help did not receive it.”

Dva Mayora, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel with close ties to the Russian military, said that the “operation was carried out competently”.

“Most likely, this is exactly how our ‘special military operation’ was meant to unfold: fast, dramatic and decisive.”

Icelandic singer Bjork has called on Greenlanders to declare their independence from Denmark and said if the country was taken over by the US, it would mean “my fellow Greenlanders might go from cruel coloniser to another”.

“I wish all Greenlanders blessing in their fight for independence,” she wrote on X. “Icelanders are extremely relieved that they managed to break from the Danish.”

In a post on X, she accuses the Danish of treating Greenlanders “like they are second class humans”.

he also references the forced sterilisation programme allegedly carried out by the Danish state on Greenlandic women in the 1960s and 70s.

Iceland gained independence from the Kingdom of Denmark and became a republic in 1944.

Greenlanders should “prepare for the worst” following President Trump’s renewed threats to seize the Arctic territory, one of the island’s most senior MPs has said.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, who represents the centre-left Inuit Ataqatigiit party in both the Danish and Greenlandic parliaments, said she had become “a little weary” of Trump’s repeated threats but she was now more alarmed against the backdrop of the US intervention in Venezuela.

She said Denmark and Greenland needed to work on a joint plan for the possibility of an American operation to annex Greenland.

“We have not dealt with that well so far,” Chemnitz Larsen told Danish radio. “We need to be a little more prepared if we end up in a crisis, or if the Americans were to come — what would we do then?”

The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, said he would “take up arms” in the face of threats from President Trump, who over the weekend seized the leader of neighbouring Venezuela in a military strike.

Petro, a former guerrilla who has for months been the target of insults and threats from Trump, said on X: “I swore not to touch a weapon again … but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”

Trump said over the weekend that Petro should “watch his ass” and described Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader as “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.

Petro has denied he is “a narco”.

Sir Keir Starmer has picked a side, on Greenland at least.

Denmark, a fellow member of Nato, has made clear that the annexation of Greenland would be unacceptable. Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, said that Trump has “no right” to the territory.

• Read in full: Trump’s threats against Greenland have forced Keir Starmer’s hand

Starmer made clear on Monday morning that he agreed. “Well, I stand with her, and she’s right about the future of Greenland,” he said. “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.

There is regime change, and then there is what happens afterwards.

Donald Trump has hailed the “brilliant operation” by US special operations forces that seized the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country to face trial in America. Video emerging on Saturday morning showed the distinctive aircraft used by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flying over the Caracas skyline.

• Read in full: Regime change won’t look so smooth if Venezuela spirals into chaos

Meanwhile, US aircraft struck regime bases elsewhere, seeking to suppress Venezuelan air defences in order to establish air supremacy.

President Macron said he “neither supported nor approved” the US military operation to grab the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, a government spokesman said.

Macron initially said Venezuelans “can only rejoice” at the overthrowing of Maduro. That reaction drew criticism from several political figures in France, some of whom saw the president as kowtowing to President Trump.

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, condemned the US operation, saying it undermined international law and stressing that no solution to Venezuela’s crisis can be imposed from the outside.

On Monday, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said Macron told cabinet ministers: “We defend international law and the freedom of peoples. The method employed is neither supported nor approved.”

Russia has advised its citizens against travelling to Venezuela.

Both the Russian embassy in Caracas and the Kremlin’s economy ministry cautioned Russians against visiting Venezuela “in connection with US armed aggression against Venezuela and the threat of repeated attacks”.

The ministry also recommended that Russian tour operators suspend the sale and promotion of trips to the country.

Russia has long maintained close ties with Venezuela, spanning energy co-operation, military links and high-level political contacts. Moscow had backed Caracas diplomatically for years as both countries sought to deepen trade and investment.

After a short flight to Manhattan, Nicolás Maduro and his wife were met by Drug Enforcement Administration officials and led to a military truck.

Roads leading to the courthouse were closed. Police cars and ambulances joined the escort.

The vehicle carrying the Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, was then shown reversing into a space at the basement of the courthouse.

The pair are expected to appear in court at about midday local time (5pm UK time).

Nicolás Maduro has been pictured being taken from the Brooklyn detention facility where he is being held to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse.

He is due to make an initial appearance at the Manhattan federal court this afternoon. The Venezuelan leader was handcuffed and escorted by agents. His wife, Cilia Flores, was also pictured being escorted and handcuffed.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that Venezuela must undergo a “peaceful transition to democracy” as quickly as possible but declined to criticise President Trump’s intervention despite pressure from some Labour MPs.

The prime minister said: “What’s happened here in Venezuela is obviously really important. We have long championed a peaceful transition to democracy, because the president was illegitimate.”

Starmer also said international law needed to be the “anchor” for the future of Venezuela after the US removed President Maduro at the weekend. He added that the US will “want to justify” its actions in international law.

But the prime minister would not be drawn on whether he believed the US had breached international law. “It remains a complicated situation. The most important thing is stability and that peaceful transition to democracy.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said he “stands” with Denmark after President Trump threatened to annex Greenland.

The prime minister said that his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, was “right” to refuse the US any claim to the territory.

Trump said after the US intervention in Venezuela that “we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security”.

The EU has said it expects its partners to “respect” the principle of territorial integrity, after President Trump reiterated calls for Greenland to become part of the United States.

“The EU will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” EU foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper told reporters.

“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of a member state of the European Union is questioned,” she added.

Switzerland has frozen any assets held in the country by Nicolás Maduro and his associates, the Federal Council said on Monday, following his seizure by US forces in Caracas and transfer to New York.

The measure, effective immediately and valid for four years, aims to prevent an outflow of potentially illicit assets and is in addition to existing sanctions imposed on Venezuela since 2018, the statement said.

The asset freeze does not affect members of the current Venezuelan government, and Switzerland said it will seek to return any funds found to be illicitly acquired to benefit the Venezuelan people.

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has said Trump’s actions in Venezuela showed that “the old world order has dissolved and a new one is taking shape”.

He added in an annual press conference in Budapest that the US attempt to take control of Venezuela and its natural resources was good for global energy markets. “This is the world of the future,” he said.

He said comparisons between Trump’s attack on Venezuela and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were “unhelpful”, and suggested that the war in Ukraine could be ended only by Russian-American negotiations, without the participation of Ukraine.

The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said on Monday that Greenland belonged to Denmark and that the Nato alliance could discuss strengthening its protection if necessary.

Wadephul was speaking after President Trump made renewed threats to take over Greenland, setting Washington at odds with its fellow Nato member Denmark.

Wadephul is the latest senior European politician to publicly show support for Copenhagen in the last 24 hours. The UK government has been urged to do the same by political opponents.

The Trump administration stands accused by congressional critics and also friends overseas of a flagrant violation of international law. The abduction by US forces of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and his wife, Cilia Flores, is, on all evidence, incompatible with the UN charter. This will trouble the White House not at all.

• Read in full: Trump beware: power without purpose will fail Venezuela

From President Trump’s perspective, a narco-terrorist no longer threatens the United States. The justification proffered by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, that “this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice” will suffice to satisfy domestic opinion and thwart international objection. It is crucial, however, that the US does not now walk away from Venezuela. It has a powerful interest in securing a democratic transition of power in a misruled and tortured nation.

The United States must explain its actions in Venezuela to the world, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.

Washington 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”.

Sir Keir Starmer has referred to the US operation in Venezuela during his first public engagement this year — but said British people had other priorities.

Speaking at a community centre in Berkshire, the prime minister said: “It’s really good to be able to come here and speak to you. I’m acutely aware that there are a lot of things going on in the world at the moment, particularly you will see some things this weekend.

“But I always remind myself that for you and millions of people across this country, what matters more than anything is the cost of living, is actually being able to pay bills, making sure that ends meet at the end of the month, and that we’re driving down all those things that cause people a lot of anxiety when they feel they can’t pay the bills.”

The Labour head of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, told Times Radio that the government needs to be clearer that the US actions in Venezuela are “a breach of international law”.

About a dozen tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude and fuel departed in recent days from the country’s waters in “dark mode”, seemingly breaking a strict blockade imposed by the US, the monitoring service TankerTrackers.com said.

All the identified departed vessels are under US sanctions. A separate group of ships, also under sanctions, left the country in recent days empty after discharging imports or completing domestic transportation trips.

Oil exports are Venezuela’s main source of revenue. An interim government now led by Delcy Rodríguez, the oil minister and vice-president, will need the income to finance spending and secure domestic stability in the country.

At least four of the departed tankers left Venezuelan waters through a route north of Margarita Island after briefly stopping near the country’s maritime border, TankerTrackers.com said, after identifying the vessels in satellite images.

A source with knowledge of the departures’ paperwork told Reuters that at least four supertankers had been cleared by the Venezuelan authorities in recent days to leave Venezuelan waters in dark mode. “Dark ships” usually refer to those that have turned off their identification system.

Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has called for Sir Keir Starmer to address parliament later today on the UK’s support for Denmark.

“Keir Starmer must come to parliament today and make it clear that Britain stands with Denmark against Trump’s threat,” Davey wrote on X.

Earlier, Davey said the prime minister needed to call his Danish counterpart and other European allies to offer a “united front against Trump’s threats” in regard to Greenland.

“You don’t suck up to bullies like Trump, he will just see it as a sign of weakness.”

President Trump has repeatedly stated that the priority for the US after overthrowing Nicolás Maduro was to move in American oil companies and start extraction in Venezuela.

The nation has massive oil reserves: about 17 per cent of the world’s total, or 303 billion barrels — even more than Saudi Arabia. However, its output is very low due to its decaying infrastructure, mismanagement and sanctions.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” said Trump, adding that the companies would be “reimbursed” for their efforts.

• Read in full: Trump wants Venezuela’s oil flowing again — but it won’t be cheap

Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, has called ministers “weak” and said that the UK must make the Trump administration aware that threats against Nato allies are “unacceptable”.

“We must now look to our Danish friends and fellow Nato allies,” Wallace wrote on X.

“We must make it very clear to the Trump administration that threats to them is unacceptable. No more weak government ministers saying nothing on media rounds.”

US oil companies’ shares have risen strongly in pre-market trading in New York after President Trump suggested they could take a leading role in “running” and restoring Venezuela’s oil industry.

Chevron, which has a long-standing presence in the country and is seen as the best positioned to ramp up production quickly, gained 6.7 per cent.

ConocoPhillips was up 6.6 per cent, and Exxon Mobil gained 3.2 per cent in New York. Both companies have multibillion-dollar outstanding claims from past expropriations, and a US-controlled transition could finally allow them to recover those debts or trade them for lucrative new drilling rights.

Halliburton, the world’s second largest oil service company, rose 6.5 per cent in expectation of investment in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

Greenland’s prime minister has pleaded with the United States to stop threatening annexation of the autonomous Danish territory, telling Washington: “That’s enough now.”

Jens-Frederik Nielsen said that the US should drop its “fantasies of annexation” and talk to officials in Greenland, rather than continually making threats.

• Read in full: Could Greenland be Trump’s next target after Venezuela?

“No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation,” the head of Greenland’s government wrote on Facebook amid growing alarm over US intentions. “We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.”

This Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has called on Europe to unite “like never before” and urged countries in the West to re-arm.

If they don’t, Tusk warned, then “we are finished”.

In a post on X, he wrote: “No-one will take seriously a weak and divided Europe: neither enemy nor ally. It is already clear now. We must finally believe in our own strength, we must continue to arm ourselves, we must stay united like never before.”

He added: “One for all, and all for one. Otherwise, we are finished.”

A Conservative shadow minister has lent some backing to the US actions in Venezuela.

Matt Vickers, a shadow home office minister, said Nicolás Maduro was “illegitimate” and “a brutal, oppressive dictator”, when asked whether Britain should support Trump’s seizure of the Venezuelan president on Times Radio.

“He held on to the reins of power,” he said. “Everything about him was wrong. The people of Venezuela are in a much better place today. The globe is probably in a better place that someone like that is not in office.”

Asked if this reasoning could also be used to justify actions against other oppressive regimes such as Belarus and Myanmar, Vickers said that “the USA is not always the world’s policeman”.

Vickers said that, as a US ally, the British government should “start from the starting point of looking at the case they put forward … the evidence they used to support the position and the requirement to do that.”

Vickers also sought to play down comparisons between the respective situations in Venezuela and in Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly suggested he wants to annex.

In further reported comments on Greenland, President Trump said he would return to the issue of sovereignty in the near future.

“We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months,” the US president said, adding specifically: “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days”.

He was speaking on aboard Air Force One while flying back to Washington.

When George HW Bush’s snatch-team seized the pockmarked Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega on drug charges in 1990 it was regarded as a new way for the US to use selective force and bring about regime change, securing the country’s supply routes and southern borders. That must have seemed like a solid precedent for the gunpoint abduction of President Maduro of Venezuela at the weekend.

In fact, the toppling of Maduro is of a different order. Venezuela is a member of Illiberal International, the club of autocratic and sanctions-busting states that work together to restrict American influence in their respective regions.

• Read in full: Why Trump’s Venezuela raid could push Russia and China together

It is an axis of sanctions busters — Russia, China, North Korea and Iran as well as Venezuela — and they smirk every time a tanker of banned oil slips past western monitoring networks and transfers its cargo.

Shock. Admiration. Vindication. These will be the emotions roiling through Beijing right now. On Friday, a Chinese diplomatic delegation was among the last to see Nicolás Maduro as a free man. Hours later, US special forces broke into his residence and extracted the world leader and his wife from Caracas.

Beijing, like the rest of the world, was caught out. “China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the US’s blatant use of force,” the Foreign Ministry said in the immediate aftermath, demanding their release.

On Weibo, China’s answer to X, one nationalistic vlogger’s rant against the operation, in which he is almost in tears, is going viral, while the top trending hashtag on Sunday was “Today Venezuela, tomorrow any other country”.

• Read Cindy Yu’s comment piece in full: China will view Venezuela raid as vindication

Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has told the US to desist from threatening annexation of the autonomous Danish territory, telling Washington: “That’s enough now.”

Writing on Facebook amid growing alarm over US intentions, Nielsen said Washington should drop its “fantasies of annexation” and talk to officials in Greenland, rather than make threats.

“No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law,” the head of Greenland’s government wrote on Facebook.

Emily Thornberry has said the government needs to be clearer that the US actions in Venezuela are “a breach of international law”.

“We can’t pretend that it’s OK because it’s not OK,” the head of the foreign affairs select committee told Times Radio. “This is not OK.”

Many legal experts have warned that the Venezuelan intervention was a breach of international law, although Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have not. The Trump administration has justified its arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife with an indictment setting out charges against them.

Thornberry, a veteran Labour MP and former shadow attorney-general, said that she would not pretend that Starmer isn’t in a “difficult” position.

“It is important that we keep a very important ally like America on board. But it’s meaningless if we don’t follow international law, but I don’t think we can just look away”.

Thornberry also said that the prime minister was not backing Trump’s words or actions.

“What they’re saying is that they’re waiting to hear what America’s justification is,” Thornberry said.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will lay out the government’s response to the US capture of President Maduro in the House of Commons later today.

Mike Tapp, the Home Office minister, told Sky News there was a need to have “all the facts” amid the “fog of war” before Britain made a call on the legality of the operation.

He said: “An application has gone into the speaker for a statement from the foreign secretary later today, so there may well be more detail on that.”

Parliament does not sit until the afternoon, so any statement will not be before 3.30pm.

The Swedish prime minister has backed Denmark over US threats to the sovereignty of Greenland, claiming that Stockholm “fully stands up for our neighbouring country”.

In a post on X, Ulf Kristersson said: “It is only Denmark and Greenland that have the right to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland. Sweden fully stands up for our neighbouring country.”

The US, Denmark and Sweden are all members of Nato.

Iran called on Monday for the release of President Maduro, who will face a court in New York later today.

“The president of a country and his wife were abducted. It’s nothing to be proud of; it’s an illegal act,” Esmail Baqaei, a foreign ministry spokesman, said at a weekly press conference.

“As the Venezuelan people have emphasised, their president must be released.”

Tehran is a close ally of Venezuela, with the former Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, describing the relationship as “friendly”. In 2022, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year co-operation agreement in Tehran.

Mike Tapp said the government would not be “pressured by social media” into making a quick decision on the legality of Trump’s actions.

The Home Office minister told Sky News the government “100 per cent respects an international rules-based system”, but he added: “It’s about diplomacy, it’s about talking to our allies and the United States.”

He said: “But at this point, it’s about getting all the facts, speaking with our allies, understanding the United States, and it’s their responsibility to lay out the legal basis for this action, and then we’ll see more. But what we don’t need to do is comment immediately and within a day or two on social media and in the news.”

A government minister has repeatedly refused to say that President Trump should not take Greenland after the US intervention in Venezuela.

Mike Tapp, the home office minister, told Times Radio that Greenland and Denmark are members of Nato and “we have a long, proud history of coming to agreements, where there’s disagreements, though talking and not through division”.

But he repeatedly said it was “hypothetical” to speak about the prospect, despite Trump suggesting overnight that he needed to take Greenland for security reasons.

He said: “I very much expect to see discussions to settle any potential disputes here, beyond what we’re seeing on social media.”

Oil prices moved between gains and losses as markets weighed US intervention in Venezuela against an Opec+ decision to maintain current production.

Brent crude fell 0.8 per cent to $60.24, as traders assessed a potential long-term supply surge from the nation holding 17 per cent of global reserves.

JPMorgan suggests a political transition could boost Venezuelan output from 800,000 to 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next decade.

Goldman Sachs notes that while reaching 2 million bpd could cut 2030 prices by $4 per barrel, any recovery would be gradual. On Sunday, eight core Opec+ members reconfirmed a production freeze until March.

In the short term, Venezuelan output remains constrained by the ongoing US embargo and the need for significant infrastructure investment.

China has said any agreements it has in place with Venezuela over oil exports will be “protected by law”, regardless of US actions over the weekend, and President Trump’s assertion that the US will “take control” of the South American country’s oil industry.

Before the current crisis, oil-rich Venezuela exported some 921,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters, with China taking about 80 per cent of that total.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said on Monday it expected the current arrangements to continue and also urged the United States to release President Maduro.

Beijing is gravely concerned over the capture of Maduro and his wife and is closely following the security situation, spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press briefing, and said the situation violated international law.

Nicolás Maduro was “not a legitimate president” and his removal makes Venezuela safer, a government minister has said.

Mike Tapp, the home office minister said Maduro, who will appear in court in New York today, “detained dissidents. He dished out beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, torture. [He] is accused of narco-terrorism, so I’m pleased to see that he is not in charge of Venezuela, and that makes the country safer.”

Tapp told Times Radio that Britain was in “conversations” over the legality of President Trump’s actions. He said: “I have to keep stressing the importance that this evil dictator is not running Venezuela anymore. That makes the people safer, and what we need to see now is a safe, peaceful democratic transition of power that suits the people and keeps them safe in Venezuela.”

The prices of gold, silver, and other precious metals have risen sharply after the US capture of Nicolás Maduro escalated geopolitical tensions and boosted safe-haven demand.

Gold rose 2 per cent to $4,419.82 an ounce, building on a 64 per cent gain last year. Silver also climbed 3.9 per cent to $75.46, following a record-breaking year where it rose 147 per cent due to its new designation as a critical US mineral and persistent supply constraints. Meanwhile, platinum and palladium saw gains of over 2 per cent.

Non-yielding assets like gold tend to do well during geopolitical or economic uncertainty and in a low-interest-rate environment.

France has reiterated its support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland as fears grow that President Trump could follow through on threats to annex Greenland.

Pascal Confavreux, the foreign ministry spokesman, told the broadcaster TF1 on Monday: “It is solidarity with Denmark … Greenland belongs to Greenland’s people and to Denmark’s people. It is up to them to decide what they wish to do. Borders cannot be changed by force.”

Trump on Sunday told The Atlantic magazine: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”

• After Venezuela, is Greenland the next target?

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland had also on Sunday urged Trump to stop threatening to take over Greenland. Over the weekend, Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, tweeted a picture of Greenland covered by the American flag and the caption: “Soon.”

Delcy Rodríguez has said Venezuela deserves “peace and dialogue, not war” in a statement aimed at President Trump.

The interim president of Venezuela extended an invitation to the US government to work together on “a co-operation agenda, oriented toward shared development” within the framework of international law.

“Venezuela reaffirms its commitment to peace and peaceful coexistence. Our country aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international co-operation. We believe that global peace is built by first guaranteeing the peace of each nation,” Rodríguez said in a statement posted on social media.

“President Donald Trump: Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s position, and it is the position of all of Venezuela at this moment. That is the Venezuela I believe in, the Venezuela to which I have dedicated my life. My dream is for Venezuela to be a great power where all good Venezuelans can come together.”

• Who is Delcy Rodríguez? Guerrilla’s daughter is new Venezuela leader

Canada’s prime minister has spoken with the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Mark Carney said the two condemned Nicolás Maduro’s “brutally oppressive, criminal and illegitimate regime”.

Carney thanked Machado “for her resolute voice on behalf of the Venezuelan people”.

A statement read: “Prime Minister Carney affirmed Canada’s steadfast support for a peaceful, negotiated and Venezuelan-led transition process that promotes stability and respects the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.”

Machado, who won the Nobel peace prize last year, has been a staunch advocate for foreign intervention in Venezuela.

• Where is María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader?

Nicolás Maduro is being held at a New York prison notorious for poor conditions and violence.

The Metropolitan Detention Centre, or MDC Brooklyn, holds those awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, who will serve their time in another institution once sentenced.

Its inmates range from alleged gangsters and drug traffickers to those accused of white-collar crimes. It has previously held sex offenders such as the singer R Kelly, the rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried.

• Read in full: Brooklyn jail which held Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and now Maduro

President Trump summed up the legal and political defence of his operation to capture Nicolás Maduro by invoking a historic declaration of American dominion which he rebranded as the “Donroe doctrine”.

This was Trump’s twist on the declaration of President James Monroe in 1823 that other world powers should allow the US a free hand to secure its hemisphere, the term used by Monroe to describe the Americas.

It underpins Trump’s rebuttal of the accusation that the US has broken international law and jeopardised the postwar legal order created to prevent powerful nations from intervening in weaker ones. It also informs Trump’s answer to domestic critics accusing him of grabbing the power of the US Congress in the constitution to declare war.

• Read in full: Trump invokes reimagined doctrine to justify Venezuela raid

President Petro of Colombia rejected threats by Donald Trump, who also accused him of being a drug trafficker.

“Stop slandering me, Mr Trump,” Petro wrote on X. “That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people of Colombia’s fight for peace.”

Petro has severely criticised the Trump administration’s military action in the region, calling the strikes on Venezuela an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America.

He has also accused Washington of abducting Maduro “without legal basis”.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump made similar threats of military action against Colombia. Trump claimed Colombia was “very sick too” and “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.

“He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long,” Trump added.

When asked whether military intervention similar to Venezuela was on the cards for Colombia, the Republican leader said: “It sounds good to me.”

“You know why because they kill a lot of people,” Trump claimed without evidence.

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, created a commission on Sunday to seek the release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Rodríguez tapped her brother Jorge, president of the National Assembly, and Yvan Gil, a foreign minister, to co-chair the commission.

Freddy Ñáñez, an information minister, will also be on the commission, he said in the announcement.

Accused of drug trafficking and terrorism, Maduro was detained in a New York jail on Saturday and is due in court on Monday after being removed from power by US forces in Caracas.

President Trump doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite the Danish prime minister demanding the US stop “threatening” the territory.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, echoing similar statements made earlier in the day.

Officials in the Trump administration are expected to brief select lawmakers about US military intervention in Venezuela on Monday, according to reports.

The classified meeting is due to take place at 5.30pm (local time), according to reporters at Punchbowl News, and will be for members of various Senate committees, including the Senate’s foreign relations committee.

Marco Rubio, the secetary of state, and Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war, are also expected to attend after multiple members of Congress condemned President Trump’s decision to take military action in Venezuela without its approval.

Cuba on Sunday announced that 32 Cuban security officers were killed in the US operation in Venezuela.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio previously said that Maduro’s security detail and Venezuela’s spy agency were “basically full of Cubans”, helping to keep Maduro in power.

Trump said on Sunday night: “You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday.” He added that the US troops injured during the mission are “in good shape”.

Trump said that “we’re in charge” of Venezuela, even as the country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, has said it will defend its sovereignty.

“We’re dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer and it’ll be very controversial,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Pressed again, Trump said: “It means we’re in charge.”

He added that he had not spoken to Rodríguez but that “at the right time I will”.

Delcy Rodríguez, the vice-president under Nicolás Maduro, will be sworn in as president on Monday in Caracas at 8am local time.

Delcy, formerly a staunch critic of the US, said in a lengthy Telegram post: “We consider it a priority to move toward a balanced and respectful international relationship between the United States and Venezuela … based on sovereign equality and non-interference.”

“We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda,” she added.

Addressing President Trump directly, Rodríguez said: “Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been the position of President Nicolás Maduro.”

Earlier, Trump told The Atlantic Magazine that if Rodríguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro”.

Washington was more focused on getting Venezuela “fixed” than trying to organise elections, Trump said.

He told reporters on Air Force One that his administration was “dealing with the people who just got sworn in”.

Asked by the New York Post earlier in the day about the exiled opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner, María Corina Machado, Trump said: “She could only win an election if I did support her. But I like her very much.

“Maybe [Machado] should run. Maybe somebody else should run. But first, we have to run the country right.”

Justifying the military intervention in Venezuela, having previously criticised American involvement in the Middle East, Trump said the country was “in our area”.

The president said he was following the “Don-roe doctrine”, a reference to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western hemisphere a US sphere of influence.

“We’re in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out,” the president said.

He said the United States had to “bring” Venezuela “back” and described the country as “dead”.

Air Force One has taken off from Florida to fly President Trump back to Washington after a fortnight’s break. He is taking questions from reporters during the flight.

Trump has suggested that he is open to US military action in Colombia after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

He said on Air Force One that an “operation Colombia sounds good to me”. Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president, was a “sick man”, Trump said, who “likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.

He added: “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.”

Delcy Rodríguez held her first cabinet meeting as Venezuela’s acting president on Sunday. The state television channel VTV showed Rodríguez at a table in the Miraflores presidential palace after Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces.

She sat alongside two other key Maduro loyalists, the defence minister Vladimir Padrino and the interior minister Diosdado Cabello.

Ukraine responded with both celebration and lament to the capture of Maduro, a longtime ally of Russia.

Andrii Sybiha, the country’s foreign minister, said on X: “Ukraine has consistently defended the right of nations to live freely, free from dictatorship.” President Zelensky suggested the US should target Putin. “If dictators can be dealt with in this way, then the United States of America knows what it should do next,” he said.

Maduro’s government has joined a list of regimes allied to Moscow that have become fragile or collapsed, such as those in Syria and now Iran, while Russia pursues a war of attrition in Ukraine.

Some commentators in Ukraine, though, worry that the precedent Trump has set could help justify Russian aggression in its own sphere of influence. Kyiv “should be ready for Russia to exploit this”, the Ukrainian MP Mykola Knizhytsky wrote on Facebook.

Oil prices fell in early Monday trading in Asia. Brent crude was down 0.63 per cent at $60.37 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate was off 0.70 per cent at $56.92.

Hours after Maduro was ousted, Trump said that American oil companies would flood into Venezuela. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.

Home to 17 per cent of the world’s total oil reserves, Venezuela has the potential to pump much more oil into the international market, bringing down prices.

Edmundo González, who was widely seen to have won a presidential election in 2024 — before Nicolás Maduro declared himself the winner — promised “national reconstruction”.

In a video statement the exiled former diplomat said Maduro’s capture was “important, but not enough” and that the results of the 2024 elections should be respected.

He called for the unconditional release of political prisoners. “No democratic transition is possible while there is even just one Venezuelan unjustly imprisoned,” said González, referring to himself as the president-elect of Venezuela.

Protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, the New York prison holding Nicolás Maduro. Their placards included the slogans “No blood for oil” and “Stop bombing Venezuela”.

Many Venezuelan migrants across Latin America and Europe, however, welcomed Maduro’s capture.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, José Gregorio joined celebrations on Saturday, saying his “joy is too big”.

“After so many years, after so many struggles, after so much work, today is the day,” he said. Independent tallies from the 2024 election, which was largely seen as stolen by Maduro, showed that about 70 per cent of Venezuelans had voted to oust his regime.

Venezuelans inside the country expressed unease over what may follow Nicolás Maduro’s capture.

A 24-year-old manicurist named Katherine told the BBC the atmosphere felt “calmer” but was uneasy. “Some people have gone out to buy groceries and whatever else they can. The military and police are on the streets,” she said.

Katherine said it was “agonising” not knowing what will happen, adding: “The vice-president here [Delcy Rodríguez] says one thing and President Trump announces another.”

The Cuban regime will be watching how events in Venezuela unfold with intense interest. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, whose parents migrated from Cuba, told NBC on Saturday that “the Cuban government is a huge problem”.

Asked if the US could turn its focus on Cuba next, Rubio said: “I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be … But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime.”

Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba — which receives heavily subsidised oil from Venezuela — has called the capture of Maduro by US troops “an unacceptable, vulgar and barbarian kidnapping”.

Rubio previously said that Maduro’s security detail and Venezuela’s spy agency were “basically full of Cubans”, helping to keep Maduro in power.

The Venezuelan government is distributing weapons to civilians, the Caracas-based journalist Rosali Hernandez said.

“Maybe they [the government] think they will have to fight against the US in the streets,” she told Sky News. “So I think that they are trying to show the population that they have the situation under control.”

Dozens of “colectivos”, or informal paramilitary groups supporting the government, have been operating in Venezuela in recent years, according to Bloomberg. They are generally stationed in poverty-stricken neighbourhoods.

Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, the captured president’s son and a Venezuelan congressman, issued a warning to “traitors”, according to local media.

“History will tell who the traitors were. We will get through this, and we are stronger and more united than ever,” he said.

President Maduro is due to appear before a federal judge on Monday at noon, in New York, it has been confirmed. He will be formally notified about the charges against him, the court said.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, face charges of “narco-terrorism” linked to the alleged trafficking of cocaine into the US.

Colombian left-wing guerrillas operating on the border with Venezuela vowed to resist Washington’s “imperial plans” for the region.

The powerful National Liberation Army (ELN), which controls cocaine trafficking routes along Colombia’s border with Venezuela, called on “all patriots” to “confront the imperial plans against Venezuela and the peoples of the global south”.

Security experts say the ELN has rear bases within Venezuela that were tolerated by Maduro. Dissident members of the defunct Farc rebel army, who vie with the ELN for control of drug-producing regions near Venezuela, also vowed resistance to Trump.

Writing on X, they said they were prepared to spend their “last drop of blood fighting the US empire”.

The prime minister of Denmark called on the US to stop “threatening its historical ally” following Trump’s statements that he “absolutely” needed Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen said: “I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland.”

The US Justice Department, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration released a statement saying the operation to capture Maduro was done after pursuing “every lawful option to resolve this matter peacefully”.

“This was a perfectly executed operation with intensive co-operation and trust among President Trump’s team,” the online statement said. “The Department of War led this remarkable effort. We cannot thank our brave military heroes enough.”

Some homes in the town of Catia La Mar were damaged or destroyed in the US military operation, residents said.

Jonatan Mallora, 50, a motorcycle taxi driver, and his neighbour Angel Alvarez, a young street vendor, said they awoke on Saturday to explosions in their community in La Guaira state, about 19 miles north of the capital Caracas. The US hit areas in La Guaira, Caracas and the neighbouring states of Miranda and Aragua.

Soldiers, civilians and much of Maduro’s security team were killed, local officials claimed on Sunday, though they offered no figures on the dead and injured.

The small Romulo Gallegos neighbourhood where Mallora and Alvarez live was damaged in the US attack on a nearby naval academy. “It’s sheer luck they didn’t kill my kids,” Mallora said amid the rubble of his apartment, where the roof was destroyed.

He said he fled unharmed along with his 24-year-old daughter and 22-year-old son.

All European Union countries except Hungary have signed a joint statement on Venezuela. “The European Union calls for calm and restraint by all actors, to avoid escalation and to ensure a peaceful solution to the crisis,” the 26 countries said. “Respecting the will of the Venezuelan people remains the only way for Venezuela to restore democracy and resolve the current crisis.”

The Trump administration’s cloak-and-dagger capture of Maduro and airstrikes on Venezuelan military facilities have raised concerns in Europe that the president could follow through on his repeated threats to annex Greenland.

• Read in full: Are threats really rhetorical?

A senior White House official told CNN that all injuries sustained by US troops while apprehending Maduro were “minor”, but did not provide further details. It was previously reported that a handful of troops sustained non-life-threatening bullet and shrapnel wounds.

Jim Jordan, a Republican congressman loyal to Trump, said the capture of Maduro was consistent with the president’s “America First” philosophy and suggested it would win his party votes.

“Getting a bad guy brought to justice who’s had a five-year arrest warrant — that is certainly consistent with that … message,” he told CNN. “I think the American people appreciate that. And, frankly, I think that’s the message we go tell the American people in this midterm election.”

The midterms, in which the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are up for election, take place in November.

Venezuela is a “totally failed country”, Trump said as he sought to defend US intervention in the country. “The country’s gone to hell,” he told The Atlantic. “It’s a country that’s a disaster in every way.”

He also repeated his demand that Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark, a Nato ally, become part of the US. Asked what the military action in Venezuela signalled for Greenland, Trump said: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know. But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”

JD Vance said the US was “a great power again” in a tweet that listed four reasons why he supported intervention.

“You see a lot claims that Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs because most of the fentanyl comes from elsewhere,” the vice-president wrote. “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. 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.

“Fourth, I see a lot of criticism about oil. About 20 years ago, Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narcoterrorist 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.”

A top Venezuelan official has declared that the country’s government would stay unified behind Maduro.

“Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolás Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister, said in audio shared by the ruling socialist party on Sunday.

Spain has joined five Latin American countries — Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay — in warning against any outside bid for “control” of Venezuela after Trump suggested Washington would “run” the country and access its oil.

In a joint statement the countries express their “rejection” of the ousting of Maduro and “concern about any attempt at governmental control or administration or outside appropriation of natural or strategic resources”.

Trump has told Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, that she will pay a “very big price” if she does not cooperate with the US.

“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic in a telephone interview. “You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse.”

Trump also confirmed that Venezuela may not be the last country subject to American intervention. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he said, describing the island, which is part of Denmark, as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships”.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman who was one of Trump’s most vocal allies until a recent falling-out over the Epstein files, has criticised Maduro’s capture.

Taylor Greene said the actions this weekend were not “America First” and “we don’t consider Venezuela our neighbourhood”.

“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,” she told NBC.

She said she was happy to see Maduro gone, but added: “Americans celebrated the liberation of the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein. They celebrated the liberation of the Libyan people after Gaddafi. And this is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn’t serve the American people, but actually serves the big corporations, the banks and the oil executives.”

The Venezuelan military has recognised Delcy Rodríguez, the vice-president, as the country’s acting leader.

General Vladimir Padrino López, the defence minister, issued a televised statement endorsing a Supreme Court ruling that appointed Rodríguez as acting president for 90 days.

Though he described the arrest of Maduro as an “abduction”, calling him the “genuine, authentic constitutional leader of all Venezuelans”, he urged the people to “resume their activities of all kinds, economic, work and education”.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the US House of Representatives, has mocked the prospect of Trump taking control of Venezuela.

“Donald Trump claims that he’s going to run Venezuela,” he told NBC on Sunday. “He’s done a terrible job running the United States of America.”

Jeffries added that Congress would examine the president’s decision to take military action without its approval. “We have to make sure when we return to Washington DC that legislative action is taken to ensure that no further military steps occur absent explicit congressional approval,” he said.

President Maduro’s abduction puts a question mark over his country’s oil reserves, our columnist writes. It also suggests a return to US realpolitik that will make leaders from Iran to Denmark nervous

Rubio said that discussions about Venezuela holding elections were “premature”, adding: “What we are focused on right now is all of the problems we had when Maduro was there. We still have those problems in terms of them needing to be addressed. We are going to give people an opportunity to address those challenges and those problems.”

The last presidential election was held in July 2024. International monitors described it as rigged and observers said Maduro had lost to the former diplomat Edmundo González.

By Stephen Gibbs, Venezuela

Trump said “many Cubans” died in the US attacks on Venezuela. “They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move,” he told the New York Post. Cuba has long been understood to have helped to provide Maduro’s security.

Sources in Havana have indicated to The Times the number of Cubans that died on Saturday may be more than 20. The Cuban government has not confirmed that any of its citizens were killed. On Saturday Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president, said: “The aggression today was against Venezuela, but tomorrow it could be against Cuba, Nicaragua, or any country with resources.”

General Vladimir Padrino López, the Venezuelan defence minister, said in a televised statement that a large part of Maduro’s security team were killed. He did not disclose the number of casualties.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the US Senate, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but questioned the legality of the American operation.

“You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened,” he said. “We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results.”

Trump has given “very matter-of-fact and very clear” instructions to Delcy Rodríguez, the interim Venezuelan leader, his homeland security secretary has said.

Kristi Noem told Fox News that Trump had told Rodríguez: “You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with, rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”

She added that the US wanted a leader in Venezuela who would be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it came to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country … We’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, has said the US actions in Venezuela were unlawful but explicable.

“It must be acknowledged that, despite the obvious unlawfulness of Trump’s behaviour, one cannot deny a certain consistency in his actions. He and his team defend their country’s national interests quite harshly,” he told the Tass news agency.

Medvedev, who was president of Russia in 2008-12 and prime minister in 2012-20, said Latin America was considered the “back yard” of the United States and Trump appeared to want control over the oil supplies of Venezuela. “Uncle Sam’s main motivation has always been simple: other people’s supplies,” Medvedev said, adding that if such actions had been taken against a stronger country then they would be considered an act of war.

Opec+, the cartel of international oil producers, kept output unchanged on Sunday.

Eight members that together pump about half the world’s oil — Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Oman — met on Sunday to confirm a pause on output rises agreed in November.

Oil prices fell more than 18 per cent in 2025. “Right now, oil markets are being driven less by supply-demand fundamentals and more by political uncertainty,” said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy and a former Opec official. “And Opec+ is clearly prioritising stability over action.”

Caracas is unusually quiet today, the Associated Press has reported. Few vehicles are on the roads of the Venezuelan capital and shops, petrol stations and other businesses are mostly closed. Big queues formed at such establishments yesterday as uncertain Venezuelans stocked up on goods.

Armed civilians as well as troops are keeping guard outside the Miraflores presidential palace.

In a low-income neighbourhood in the east of the city, Daniel Medalla, a construction worker, sat outside a church to tell parishioners there would be no Mass. He speculated that the streets were empty not because people were worried about another strike but out of fear of government repression if they dared to celebrate Maduro’s exit. “We were longing for it,” Medalla, 66, said.

America is at war with drug cartels but not with Venezuela, Marco Rubio has said. The US secretary of state told NBC News on Sunday that his country was “enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions … We have sanctioned entities. We go to court, we get a warrant, we seize those boats with oil and that will continue.”

He said there were no American troops on the ground in Venezuela, and told CBS News that the US was ready to work with its remaining leaders if they made “the right decision”. If they did not, he said, the US could use “multiple levers of leverage”.

María Corina Machado, the international figurehead of the Venezuelan opposition who collected the Nobel peace prize last month, has been reduced to a peripheral role.

Trump appeared to dismiss the prospect of involving Machado, 58, in the political transition, describing her as a “very nice woman” but saying it would be “tough” for her to lead the nation because she did not have enough “respect” or “support” in the country.

Her whereabouts are obscure. On December 10 she went secretly to Oslo to collect her prize in person, before leaving Norway for medical treatment at an undisclosed location.

• Read more: The Sunday Times interviews Machado in October

​S​he has released an open letter welcom​ing the “time of freedom” and said the US government had ​fulfilled its “promise to enforce the law” against Maduro. It ​a​dds that Machado’s ally Edmundo González, a former diplomat who is widely believed to have defeated Maduro in an election in July 2024, should “immediately assume his constitutional mandate” as president.

• Read in full: Machado sidelined by US

Maduro is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

It has housed notorious inmates in recent years, including Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein accomplice; the singer R Kelly, who is serving more than 30 years for child sexual abuse and kidnapping; Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the health insurance chief executive Brian Thompson; and the rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, convicted last year of transportation to engage in prostitution.

It is also where Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was initially held on drug trafficking charges. He was sentenced to 45 years in jail in 2024 but pardoned by Trump last year.

Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. His wife, Cilia Flores, is also charged with allegedly participating in the conspiracy.

The Spanish prime minister has condemned what he calls a violation of international law.

Pedro Sánchez’s comments in a letter to members of his Socialist Party go further than previous remarks in which he said he would not recognise the intervention. The letter describes the “violation of international law in Venezuela, an act that we strongly condemn”.

Spain is home to about 700,000 Venezuelans, the largest such population outside Latin America and the US. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated at the US embassy in Madrid on Sunday.

The seizure of Maduro was 36 years to the day since the capture of the Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega.

Noriega surrendered to American forces on January 3, 1990, after he took sanctuary in the Vatican embassy. In echoes of this weekend, the US launched its intervention after attempts at negotiation failed to force Noriega out of power.

He was taken to the US and sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug smuggling and money laundering, among other offences. After extradition to France in 2010 he was taken back to Panama, where again he was imprisoned. He died in 2017, aged 83.

While Trump has used force without elaborately argued legal justification or congressional approval, there are plenty of precedents for US intervention in its Latin American “back yard”: Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada in 1983 and George Bush deposed the Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega in 1989.

By comparison, the Venezuelan operation — in terms of actual troops in country — could be categorised as “regime change lite”. But if there is large-scale lawlessness in Venezuela the US decision to go for the smallest possible footprint could leave them looking powerless.

• Read in full: American history shows the dangers of venturing into its ‘back yard’

Israel supports the “strong action” in Venezuela, Binyamin Netanyahu has said.

“Regarding Venezuela, I wish to express the support of the entire government for the resolute decision and strong action of the United States to restore freedom and justice to that region of the world,” the prime minister told his cabinet at a meeting on Sunday.

Trump has claimed that US oil companies will move back into Venezuela and refurbish degraded infrastructure.

Experts suggest that Venezuela, a founding member of Opec, holds some 17 per cent of global oil reserves, the world’s largest. Due to US sanctions it produces about a million barrels a day. Previously America was the biggest customer but now the main destination is China.

Its reserves are made up mostly of heavy oil, needed by America, which produces light crude. Experts have said that modernising the Venezuelan oil industry and its infrastructure could take decades.

Chevron is the only big US oil company currently operating in Venezuela.

• Read in full: Why oil is at the heart of Trump’s promises in Venezuela

As American military forces assembled off his coast in December and the White House threatened to overthrow him, Nicolás Maduro put on a remarkable show of insouciance.

The Venezuelan president was seen dancing on stage with supporters and attending Christmas tree lightings. “Don’t worry, be happy,” the 63-year-old leftist sang at one event, wearing a sombrero and flashing a peace sign. “They’ll never be able to remove us from the path to revolution,” he yelled at another gathering. “Victory forever!”

His seizure on Saturday morning appears to have proved him wrong,

• Read in full: Has Trump written Maduro’s political obituary?

The White House will need to elaborate on its legal justifications beyond “top-line words” from Trump, a British minister has said.

The UK government has declined to comment in detail on the legal status of the US intervention in Venezuela. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, told Times Radio: “I’m not justifying anything one way or another and I’m not also making a judgement of the application of international law.

“We have to wait to see the explanation of the legal basis for the intervention in the same way that everyone else does and I’m assuming that will take place at the UN security council meeting later this week.”

Venezuelan officials claimed that at least 80 people, including military personnel and civilians, were killed in the US incursion on Saturday, according to The New York Times.

This has not been confirmed publicly by the US or Venezuela. Trump said on Saturday that no US troops had been killed, although he suggested some were injured.

Pictures shared with US news outlets showed the aftermath of the US attack on Fuerte Tiuna, a military facility in Caracas. Aerial shots show how the complex looked before and after the strikes.

Senior US officials have said Delcy Rodríguez, the Venezuelan vice-president appointed interim leader, is somebody they “can work with”.

A report in the New York Times said Washington had decided on Rodríguez weeks ago and believe she could help with American energy investments in Venezuela, which is the world’s 12th biggest oil producer.

“I’m not claiming that she’s the permanent solution to the country’s problems, but she’s certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with him,” an official said, referring to Maduro.

• Read more: Strikes threaten Chinese oil stocks

The Venezuelan dictator was in a supposed safe house when the Delta Force commandos burst in just after 2am and snatched him and his wife, before his security team had time to secure the property’s final defence of two heavy steel doors. Even if they had, the Americans were armed with blowtorches.

Within minutes Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores were being flown by helicopter across a moonlit Caribbean Sea to the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship. They are expected to be sent to a New York federal detention centre before facing trial on drug trafficking charges.

• Read in full: Were the Maduros betrayed?

Delcy Rodríguez, the vice-president since 2018, has been appointed interim leader of Venezuela in Maduro’s absence.

Rodríguez, 56, is from a storied political family linked to the troubled relationship between the South American state and its all-powerful regional neighbour, the US.

Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, founded the Socialist League party and was involved in the 1976 kidnapping of the American businessman William Niehous, who was head of operations for a glass bottle company. Niehous was held for three years before he was found in a jungle, chained to a pole in a cattle rancher’s hut, and rescued.

Mr Rodríguez was arrested for his role in the kidnapping and died under torture. His daughter’s brother, Jorge Jesus Rodríguez Gomez, is president of the Venezuelan parliament.

• Read in full: Who leads Venezuela now? Trump has picked his grudging puppet

Kim Jong-un has ordered an expansion of North Korea’s production of guided missiles after the US strikes on Venezuela, state news reported.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the supreme leader visited a weapons factory yesterday to review multipurpose precision guided weapons produced there. The country’s foreign ministry condemned the US operation as “the most serious form of encroachment of sovereignty”, saying it again showed “the rogue and brutal nature of the US”.

Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, has said Trump is “going alone” in an exchange about the US intervention in Venezuela.

She told Adam Boulton on Times Radio that “these are dangerous times” with many conflicts around the world. Asked whether Trump was contributing to this danger, she said: “He’s going alone on many of these.”

Asked if she supported the US actions, she said Trump was “making his own case for domestic reasons around drugs and American deaths … There are a lot of actors out there with lots of different agendas and also we’ve got to look at even the things that are affecting us closer to home right now: Iran, Ukraine, Russia.

“These are the issues that obviously consume us all and rightly so. We’ve got to ask the [British] government many of these questions in the days ahead. See what dialogues and discussions they’re having. What answers they get from the US administration.”

The Pope said he was following developments with a “soul full of concern” and called for human rights and Venezuelan sovereignty to be respected.

“The welfare of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over all other considerations and lead to overcoming violence and embarking on paths of justice and peace, guaranteeing the sovereignty of the country,” Leo, the first American pope, said today.

Almost half of the 29 million-strong Venezuelan population is Catholic, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Map of key targets

Restrictions imposed by the US on airspace over Venezuela and the Caribbean expired earlier today, suggesting that immediate further military action was unlikely.

“The original restrictions around the Caribbean airspace are expiring at 12am ET [7am GMT] and flights can resume”, Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, posted on X. “Airlines are informed, and will update their schedules quickly. Please continue to work with your airline if your flight was affected by the restrictions.”

The White House has celebrated Maduro’s capture by using a recent video of the Venezuelan leader taunting “coward” US officials to “come get me”.

A post on the White House’s official X account shows Maduro referring to his official residence, saying: “I’ll wait here in Miraflores, don’t take too long.” The video cuts Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, at the press conference about the capture yesterday. “And now if you don’t know, now you know,” he says.

It shows the image of Maduro blindfolded after he was seized by US forces, followed by Trump smiling as he walks down a hallway. The clip ends by playing the Notorious BIG’s song Hypnotize.

The deputy leader of Reform UK has rejected comparisons between America’s strikes in Venezuela and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming the two are “are chalk and cheese”.

Richard Tice was asked on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips why it was different for Trump to say “we need to remove this bad guy from Venezuela” because “his narco-terrorists threaten us in the United States”, versus the Russian president’s statements that “there are fascists and Nazis in Ukraine that threaten our borders and we’re going to remove them”.

Tice responded that they “are chalk and cheese, there is no comparison whatsoever” and “Putin has never said he was going to give Ukraine back to the Ukrainians”.

He told the programme the comparison is “apples and pears, nonsense … He wanted to invade the whole of Ukraine and to keep it”.

When the White House published its National Security Strategy last month, there was much focus on its claim that Europe faced “civilisational erasure” in the next two decades as a result of migration and censorship. But the most significant section of the 33-page document was a little higher up: the Western Hemisphere.

The paper outlined a new approach to “assert and enforce a ‘Trump corollary’ to the Monroe doctrine”, the foreign policy statement warning European powers against further colonisation or interference in America’s backyard. It read like major change was afoot. On Saturday, it became clear exactly what.

• Read in full: What happened to America First, asks US, as Trump strikes Venezuela

The Danish ambassador to the US has said his country “expects full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark”, after a prominent Maga podcaster posted an image of Greenland covered in the American flag.

Katie Miller, who is married to Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, and hosts a podcast with Kash Patel, the FBI director, posted the picture with the caption: “SOON.”

Jesper Moller Sorensen said in response: “Just a friendly reminder about the US and the Kingdom of Denmark: we are close allies and should continue to work together as such. US security is also Greenland’s and Denmark’s security. Greenland is already part of Nato. The Kingdom of Denmark and the United States work together to ensure security in the Arctic.

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”

The airstrikes on Caracas and capture of Maduro yesterday mark the most dramatic US intervention in Latin America in decades, and the culmination of a year-long campaign by Trump.

Trump accuses Maduro and drug smugglers in the region of “flooding” America with drugs including cocaine. But this is not the first time the United States has intervened in Venezuela, or the wider region.

• Read in full: A timeline of US intervention in Latin America

The legality of the US operation is under intense as experts question whether it violated international law. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” Ilan Katz, an analyst, said.

China has condemned the strike as illegal and said it threatened peace and security. Analysts suggested Beijing could leverage the action to defend its stance against the US on territorial issues including Taiwan, Tibet and islands in the East and South China seas.

“Washington’s consistent, long-standing arguments are always that the Chinese actions are violating international law but they are now damaging that,” William Yang, an analyst at International Crisis Group, an NGO based in Brussels, said. “It’s really creating a lot of openings and cheap ammunition for the Chinese to push back against the US in the future.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, said on X that Maduro “presided over a brutal and repressive dictatorship that brought about unimaginable suffering on the Venezuelan people”.

“The end of his regime offers new hope for the country. This is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions,” he said. “The priority must now be to ensure a peaceful and speedy transition to a new inclusive government that enjoys full democratic legitimacy. Greece will coordinate with its European Union and UN security council partners on the matter. We remain focused on ensuring the safety of Greek citizens in the country.”

China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that the US should immediately release Maduro and his wife and resolve the situation in Venezuela through dialogue and negotiation.

The ministry added the US should ensure their personal safety and that their deportation violated international law and norms.

China, along with Russia, is a major backer of Venezuela. Beijing had earlier said that “China firmly opposes such hegemonic behaviour by the US, which seriously violates international law, violates Venezuela’s sovereignty and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

More than 150 US aircraft, including F18s, F35s and B1 stealth bombers, were used in the Venezuelan operation. These helped to take out air defences over Caracas before a fleet of US helicopters moved in to abduct Maduro, the socialist leader in power since 2013.

Trump said the dictator and his wife, Cilia Flores, were “bum-rushed” in their steel-reinforced home by special forces and gave up before they were able to make it to a panic room. “We had blowtorches ready, but we didn’t need to use them,” he told Fox News.

He said two US operatives were injured in the attack, while a helicopter came under fire as the extraction squad departed. “This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” Trump said.

Sir Keir Starmer has called for international law to be upheld but stopped short of criticising Trump’s actions.

Having emphasised that “the UK was not involved in this operation”, last night he said it had “long supported a transition of power in Venezuela”, adding: “We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime.”

Starmer said the government would “discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people”.

Other international reaction has been mixed. The EU has pledged to monitor the situation, while China and Russia have criticised the US’s actions.

The British government does not know what Trump meant by saying the US would run Venezuela, a minister has said.

Asked by Sky News if the US action in Venezuela sounded like colonialism, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said: “We’re not in favour of colonialism and we’re not entirely clear yet what President Trump meant by those comments. It’s for the Americans now and for Venezuela to set out what happens in the coming days.”

Jones added that it was not for a “third country” to decide the future of Venezuela’s government.

President Trump indicated that officials in Washington, including Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, would play a pivotal role in managing Venezuela’s transition.

He also suggested that Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, had offered to work with the US during the transition. Trump claimed that she had been sworn in as interim president.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court later ordered Rodríguez become the country’s interim leader, but stopped short of declaring Nicolás Maduro permanently absent from office, a ruling that requires elections to be held within 30 days. However, on Saturday night Rodríguez said Maduro was Venezuela’s only president. She called for calm and unity after Maduro’s “kidnapping” and said that Venezuela would “never again be the colony of any empire”.

President Maduro of Venezuela is in US custody after being seized by American forces. The Trump administration has asserted that it now “runs” his government.

A Boeing airliner carrying the Venezuelan leader and his wife landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base less than 24 hours after he was snatched by elite US Delta forces.

Maduro was taken from his compound in Caracas in a show of force not seen “since World War Two”, Trump said.

Maduro is being held at a detention centre in Brooklyn. He and his wife may be arraigned as soon as Monday, according to US news reports. They face drugs and weapons charges.