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CARACAS, Venezuela — <\/span>Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation<\/a> that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to \u201crun\u201d the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.<\/p>\n Maduro landed Saturday evening at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife<\/a>, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital city of Caracas \u2014 an act that Maduro’s government called \u201cimperialist.\u201d The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.<\/p>\n The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign<\/a> on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions<\/a> about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country\u2019s rightful leader<\/a> as her nation’s high court named her interim president.<\/p>\n Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodr\u00edguez, who didn\u2019t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none were killed.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to \u201cfix\u201d the country\u2019s oil infrastructure and sell \u201clarge amounts\u201d of oil to other countries.<\/p>\n The Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.<\/p>\n Trump claimed the U.S. government would help lead the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state TV aired pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference. He boasted that this \u201cextremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a \u201ccorrupt, illegitimate government\u201d fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.<\/p>\n The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike<\/a> at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels \u2014 the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.<\/p>\n Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off \u201calmost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro \u2014 where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,\u201d Caine said. \u201cNot to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple explosions rang out that morning, and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the United States of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an \u201cimperialist attack\u201d and urging citizens to take to the streets. The explosions \u2014 at least seven blasts \u2014 sent people rushing into the streets<\/a>, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.<\/p>\n Under Venezuelan law, Rodr\u00edguez would take over from Maduro. Rodr\u00edguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela\u2019s high court ordered that she become interim president.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, \u201cand his name is Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros.\u201d<\/p>\n Venezuela\u2019s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro\u2019s predecessor, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.<\/p>\n Maduro took over when Ch\u00e1vez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost<\/a> by a more than 2-to-1 margin.<\/p>\n In a demonstration of how polarizing Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture, while others celebrated it. At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Mayor Carmen Mel\u00e9ndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro\u2019s return.<\/p>\n \u201cMaduro, hold on, the people are rising up!\u201d the crowd chanted. \u201cWe are here, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!\u201d<\/p>\n In other parts of the city, the streets were empty hours after the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do I feel? Scared, like everyone,\u201d said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking at his phone. \u201cVenezuelans woke up scared. Many families couldn\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n