Trump and maduro: 1)(Updated) U.S. seizes 2 oil tankers linked to Venezuela and is selectively removing sanctions to enable sales; 2)Experts say Canada should co-ordinate Western Hemisphere response to Maduro’s ouster; 3)Maduro says ‘I was captured’ as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges; 4)Maduro to make first appearance in US courtroom on drug trafficking charges; 5) After Maduro, who’s next? Trump spurs speculation about his plans for Greenland, Cuba and Colombia; 6)Maduro arrives in U.S. after stunning capture in operation that Trump says will let U.S. ‘run’ Venezuela; 7)Carney says Canada ‘welcomes the opportunity for freedom’ after Maduro’s capture; 8)(Updated) US plans to ‘run’ Venezuela and tap its oil reserves, Trump says, after operation to oust Maduro
1)(Updated) U.S. seizes 2 oil tankers linked to Venezuela and is selectively removing sanctions to enable sales
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Konstantin Toropin And Jill Lawless, January 7, 2026
The United States seized two sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, officials said Wednesday, and is removing sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of oil from the South American country to markets worldwide.
.S. European Command announced the seizure of the merchant vessel Bella 1 for “violations of U.S. sanctions” in a social media post. The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
Then, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed that U.S. forces also took control of the tanker Sophia in the Caribbean. Noem said in a social media post both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.”
Noem said that both ships are part of a large “ghost fleet” of sanctioned vessels that carry oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela in defiance of Western sanctions, mostly to customers in Asia.
The Trump administration is “selectively” removing sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of Venezuelan oil to global markets, according to an outline of the policies published Wednesday by the Energy Department.
The oil sales are slated to begin immediately with the sale of 30 million to 50 million barrels from the South American country. The U.S. government said the sales “will continue indefinitely” with the proceeds settling in U.S.-controlled accounts at “globally recognized banks.” The money would then be disbursed to the U.S. and Venezuelan populations at the “discretion” of Trump’s government.
The two ship seizures come just days after U.S. military forces conducted a surprise nighttime raid on Venezuela’s capital of Caracas and captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, whom President Donald Trump’s administration has accused of partnering with drug traffickers.
Since that raid, officials in Trump’s Republican administration have said that they intend to continue to seize sanctioned vessels connected to the country.
“We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC on Sunday. “We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize those boats with oil. And that will continue.”
The U.S. military seized the Bella 1 and subsequently handed over control of it to law enforcement officials, said a U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The ship was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
It was cruising across the Atlantic nearing the Caribbean on Dec. 15 when it abruptly turned and changed its heading north, toward Europe. The change in direction came days after the first U.S. tanker seizure of a ship called the Skipper, on Dec. 10, after it had left Venezuela carrying a cargo of oil.
The U.S. Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela. The ship refused boarding and headed across the Atlantic. U.S. European Command confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro tracked the ship ahead of its seizure “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court” in a social media post.
During this time, the Bella 1 was renamed Marinera and flagged to Russia, shipping databases show. The U.S. official also confirmed that the ship’s crew had painted a Russian flag on the side of the hull.
Earlier Wednesday, open-source maritime tracking sites showed its position as between Scotland and Iceland, traveling north. The U.S. official also confirmed the ship was in the North Atlantic.
Flight tracking websites showed several U-28A U.S. special operations aircraft landing at Wick John O’Groats airport on the northern tip of Scotland, before flying further north toward Iceland on Wednesday. P8 Poseidon submarine-hunting aircraft and KC-135 refueling planes were also seen on tracking websites, heading to the area near the tanker.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said before the seizure that it was “following with concern the anomalous situation that has developed around the Russian oil tanker Marinera.”
Immediately following news of the seizure, Russia’s Ministry of Transport confirmed the boarding in a statement and noted that “no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states,” citing the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Maduro appeared in court this week in New York, where he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty to the federal drug trafficking charges the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in Venezuela. Maduro’s lawyer said he expects to contest the legality of his “military abduction.”
“I am here kidnapped since Jan. 3, Saturday,” Maduro said in Spanish in court on Monday. “I was captured at my home in Caracas.” ___
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker in Washington, contributed to this report.
2)Experts say Canada should co-ordinate Western Hemisphere response to Maduro’s ouster
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Dylan Robertson, January 6, 2026
A government supporter holds a banner with a photo of President Nicolas Maduro during a protest demanding his release from U.S. custody in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Foreign policy experts say Ottawa should reach out to nations threatened by the United States to co-ordinate a response to the Trump administration’s ouster of Venezuela’s autocratic ruler.
“We’re a long way from a democratic transition here. This actually looks in many ways more like a presidential coup,” said Max Cameron, a University of British Columbia professor who is president of the global Latin American Studies Association.
“If this current government doesn’t want to issue press releases that are directly critical of the United States, at least behind the scenes, it can put together the doctrinal basis for Canadian liberal internationalism that is counter to American aggressive unilateralism.”
The U.S. shocked the world Saturday when it captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military raid that followed months of airstrikes on Venezuelan boats that Washington said were smuggling drugs.
The move came after Washington deployed a new national security strategy that called for the U.S. to exert much more control over North and South America.
Canada and other democracies called on Maduro to resign after a 2018 election that was almost universally seen as stolen, and after years of human rights abuses and economic mismanagement.
But the unilateral ouster of a sitting head of state has other nations worried that the U.S. will return to a historical pattern of intervention throughout Latin America.
Cameron said Ottawa should be reaching out to other countries Washington has threatened to invade or purchase — such as Mexico, Panama, Cuba and the Danish territory of Greenland — and to regional heavyweights like Brazil to set out a strategy for preserving national sovereignty.
“Much of Latin America welcomes our presence,” he said.
“I would say go to Mexico City, go to Brasilia, sit down with their diplomats and work out a pact that spells out how the rest of the world, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, is going to deal with” a more aggressive U.S., he added.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have said in media statements they are monitoring the situation and reaching out to partners. Carney also has spoken with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Both said they support the right of the Venezuelan people to democracy and called on “all parties to respect international law” — with no mention of the U.S.
Carney is in Paris this week for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, a group crafting security guarantees for Ukraine. It’s expected the group of mostly European leaders will discuss the situation in Venezuela and its impact on global politics. On Carney’s planned itinerary in Paris is a Tuesday meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has pushed back with increasing force on the idea of Washington taking over Greenland.
David Carment, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said these statements lack “any actionable policy” for Ottawa and they don’t seem to acknowledge the chaos and violence that can follow a sudden coup.
“It doesn’t really speak to any actionable policy that Canada can follow through with,” he said. “It does leave Canadians wondering exactly what it is that we intend to do, more importantly, and whether or not we will take issue with the U.S. approach to removing Maduro from power.”
Carment said Ottawa should instead say that it’s seeking clarity from Washington on its next steps in Venezuela and on its plans for countries in the region “vulnerable” to American intervention.
“This is a time for leaders to demonstrate some independent resolve, not necessarily annoying Americans but actually finding out in what capacity Canada can influence the situation,” he said.
“Should we have reached out to regional partners who may feel equally threatened? I think that would be an important, positive message to demonstrate we have diplomatic influence and carry some weight.”
Carment said Canada has lacked a diplomatic presence inside Venezuela since 2019 and Ottawa “has opted out of engaging in hard-nosed diplomacy with countries we don’t get along with,” such as Iran.
Cameron said Ottawa has still contributed to democratic movements in Venezuela over the years and can step up that work to stabilize the country and the broader region.
Canada was part of the Lima Group, a group of countries that tried to mount a peaceful takeover of Maduro’s regime by empowering the opposition that was widely seen as having won the 2018 election. Canada hosted the group for meetings and used to co-ordinate with democratic activists in Venezuela.
Cameron said that kind of work goes against Canada’s habit of ignoring its own backyard.
“We treat Latin America as if it only matters when our mining companies are there, or banks are there.”
3)Maduro says ‘I was captured’ as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Michael R. Sisak, Larry Neumeister And Eric Tucker, January 5, 2026
A defiant Nicolás Maduro declared himself the “president of my country” as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty on Monday to the federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power.
“I was captured,” Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom reporter before being cut off by the judge. Asked later for his plea to the charges, he stated: ““I’m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country.”
The courtroom appearance, Maduro’s first since he and his wife were seized from their home in a stunning middle-of-the-night military operation, kick-starts the U.S. government’s most consequential prosecution in decades of a foreign head of state. The criminal case in Manhattan is unfolding against the diplomatic backdrop of an audacious U.S.-engineered regime change that President Donald Trump has said will enable his administration to “run” the South American country.
Maduro, wearing a blue jail uniform, was led into court along with his co-defendant wife just before noon for the brief, but required, legal proceeding. Both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it is translated into Spanish.
The couple were transported to the Manhattan courthouse under armed guard early Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they’ve been detained since arriving in the U.S. on Saturday.
The trip was swift. A motorcade carrying Maduro left jail around 7:15 a.m. and made its way to a nearby athletic field, where Maduro slowly made his way to a waiting helicopter. The chopper flew across New York harbor and landed at a Manhattan heliport, where Maduro, limping, was loaded into an armored vehicle.
A few minutes later, the law enforcement caravan was inside a garage at the courthouse complex, just around the corner from the one where Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records. Across the street from the courthouse, the police separated a small but growing group of protesters from about a dozen pro-intervention demonstrators, including one man who pulled a Venezuelan flag away from those protesting the U.S. action.
As a criminal defendant in the U.S. 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. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
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.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the U.S.
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation early Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing ” oil quarantine.”
Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
He called on Venezuela’s Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.
Trump has suggested that removing Maduro would enable more oil to flow out of Venezuela, but oil prices rose a bit more than 1% in Monday morning trading to roughly $58 a barrel. There are uncertainties about how fast oil production can be ramped up in Venezuela after years of neglect and needed investments, as well as questions about governance and oversight of the sector.
A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.
While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
Maduro, his wife and his son — who remains free — are charged along with Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss’ killing in Caracas, the indictment said.
Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.
___ Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Josh Boak in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.
4) Maduro to make first appearance in US courtroom on drug trafficking charges
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Canadian Press, January 5, 2026
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.
The couple will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.
As a criminal defendant in the U.S. 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. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
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.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully tried the same defence after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the U.S.
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing ” oil quarantine.”
Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
He called on Venezuela’s Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.
A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
It wasn’t clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a U.S. lawyer yet.
He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.
While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
Maduro, his wife and his son — who remains free — are charged along with Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss’ killing in Caracas, the indictment said.
Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.
5) After Maduro, who’s next? Trump spurs speculation about his plans for Greenland, Cuba and Colombia
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Aamer Madhani, January 4, 2026
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”
Trump, in his administration’s National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.
Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he’s made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.
Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president’s foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”
Causing unease in Denmark
Saturday’s dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.
Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.
Social media posting angers Danes
Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.
The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.
The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
A stern warning to Cuba
Meanwhile, concern is simmering in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.
Rubio, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.
“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”
The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.
Trump said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
Warning delivered to Colombia
Trump, as he made his way back to Washington on Sunday evening, also put Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, on notice.
Trump in a back-and-forth with reporters said Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicenter of the world’s cocaine trade.
Trump began his monthslong pressure campaign on Maduro by ordering dozens of lethal strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats launched from Venezuela in the Caribbean. He eventually expanded the operations to also target suspected vessels in the eastern Pacific that came from Colombia.
The U.S. in September also added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of U.S. assistance to the country.
“He’s not going to be doing it for very long,” Trump said of Petro on Sunday. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it.”
Asked whether he might order the U.S. to conduct an operation against Colombia, Trump replied, “It sounds good to me.”
___ AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.
6) Maduro arrives in U.S. after stunning capture in operation that Trump says will let U.S. ‘run’ Venezuela
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Regina Garcia Cano, Konstantin Toropin and Eric Tucker, January 4, 2026
Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Maduro landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital, Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign 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 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’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.
Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who didn’t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none was killed.
Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.
After arriving at a small airport in New York City’s northern suburbs, Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armored car, was waiting to whisk him to a nearby U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office.
A video posted on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through that office by two DEA agents grasping his arms.
Trump says U.S. will ‘run the country’
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.
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.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference. He boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”
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 “corrupt, illegitimate government” 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.
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 at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.
Early morning attack
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 “almost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”
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 “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets. The explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.
Restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on airspace around Venezuela and the Caribbean expired early Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X, an announcement that suggested any further immediate major U.S. military action was unlikely. “Airlines are informed, and will update their schedules quickly,” he posted.
Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. Rodríguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela’s high court ordered that she become interim president.
“There is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”
Some streets in Caracas fill up
Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.
Maduro took over when Chávez 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 by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
Venezuela’s capital remained unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around and convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses closed. A road typically filled with runners, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts on Sundays only had a handful of people working out the day after Maduro was deposed.
The presidential palace was guarded by armed civilians and members of the military. At a nearby plaza, only a street sweeper and a soldier stood, and across the street, a church remained close for a second day in a row.
Caracas resident David Leal arrived to the lot where he parks vehicles for a living only to quickly realize that he would likely not see any clients for a second day.
“People are still shaken,” Leal, 77, said.
Questions of legality linger
Whether the United States violated any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.
Pope Leo XIV, who last month had expressed concern about growing U.S. threats of military intervention in Venezuela, raised alarms during his Sunday noon blessing and said the good of the Venezuelan people must prevail above everything else. History’s first U.S. pope demanded an end to violence and for Venezuela’s sovereignty to be guaranteed.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning.
Lawmakers from both American political parties have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”
___ Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Farnoush Amiri in New York; Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, and Nicole Winfiled in Rome contributed to this report.
7)Carney says Canada ‘welcomes the opportunity for freedom’ after Maduro’s capture
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Cassidy McMackon, January 3, 2026
The daring ouster of the president of Venezuela by the U.S. military sent shockwaves through the Western Hemisphere as President Donald Trump heralded the operation in the oil-rich Latin American nation a success.
Prime Minister Mark Carney reacted on Saturday afternoon by noting that one of the first actions taken by his new government in March was to impose additional sanctions on Nicolás Maduro’s “brutally oppressive and criminal regime.”
In a statement posted to social media, Carney noted that Canada has not recognized “the illegitimate regime of Maduro since it stole the 2018 election.”
“The Canadian government therefore welcomes the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people,” Carney wrote.
But he also wrote that Canada has “long supported a peaceful, negotiated, and Venezuelan-led transition process that respects the democratic will of the Venezuelan people,” adding that Canada calls on all parties to respect international law.
“We stand by the Venezuelan people’s sovereign right to decide and build their own future in a peaceful and democratic society,” Carney’s statement said.
U.S. military forces extracted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home on a military base in Caracas in a whirlwind military operation which saw multiple explosions ring out as low-flying aircraft swept through the nation’s capital.
The duo were brought to New York where U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said they will face several drug-related charges, including “narcoterrorism” conspiracy charges. Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted on similar charges in 2020.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre congratulated Trump for capturing Maduro, referring to Venezuelan leader as a “terrorist and socialist dictator who should live out his days in prison.”
Toronto-based Venezuelan activist Rebecca Sarfatti said she was caught by surprise early Saturday when several group chats with loved ones in Caracas started buzzing about the operation.
The 54-year-old, who has been in Canada since 2001 and is the co-founder of the Canada Venezuela Democracy Forum, said her initial concern for people in Caracas at the outbreak of the attacks has faded into hope for the future of her country.
“I never thought I would live to see something like this or experience something like this,” she said. “I’m definitely happy because (Maduro’s) going to be taken through the courts. The outcome for Venezuelans is the right thing.”
“My hope is that we are able to recover a peaceful country that has been hostage for too many years,” she said.
The Green Party of Canada, however, slammed the development as a violation of international law and called the military action a “kidnapping.”
The Canadian government issued a travel warning Saturday afternoon urging all Canadians to avoid Venezuela due to a significant level of violent crime, unstable political and economic environment, risk of arbitrary detention and decline in basic living conditions.
The advisory said Canada’s ability to provide consular services to Canadians in Venezuela is “severely limited and done remotely.” It urged those who were in the country to shelter in place and make sure to keep a supply of essential items.
The Canadian Press has reached out to Global Affairs Canada to confirm whether they have seen requests for aid.
Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.
“Where (Trump’s) gone now is something that certainly everybody in the hemisphere has to take note of and is taking note of,” said Kenneth Frankel, president of the Canadian Council for the Americas. “Because it’s unclear what the U.S. thinks its limitations are in terms of how it imposes its will to protect its expanded view of what its security concerns are right now.”
Frankel, who spoke from Medellín in neighbouring Columbia, said once you look past the questionable pretenses for the U.S. action — in this case drugs and human rights — “I think Trump was very, very clear in his press conference today … it’s about the resources.”
It’s unclear what could emerge in the vacuum caused by Maduro’s ouster in Venezuela and throughout the region. For Maduro critics, Saturday’s operation may seem like a success, but Frankel said “nobody knows what happens on day two, day three, and, you know, month two and month three and beyond.”
Frankel said if the situation is about oil and not necessarily about restoring order, “what does that mean, for example, for the Colombian-Venezuelan border, where there are a number of bad actors, all of whom are armed, who sometimes work in conjunction with the government, some of which maybe the government doesn’t have a great control of?”
“With Maduro out of the picture and the U.S. unhappiness with (Colombian President Gustavo Petro), who will be the interlocutor for Columbia to speak with in Venezuela on border issues?”
— with files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington and The Associated Press
8)(Updated) US plans to ‘run’ Venezuela and tap its oil reserves, Trump says, after operation to oust Maduro
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Regina Garcia Cano, Konstantin Toropin And Eric Tucker, January 3, 2025
Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicolás Maduro from power and removed him from the country Saturday, President Donald Trump said the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American country and its autocratic leader and months of secret planning resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.
Venezuela’s vice president demanded in a speech that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader.
Maduro and his wife, seized overnight from their home on a military base, were aboard a U.S. warship on their way to New York to face prosecution for a Justice Department indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The legal authority for the operation was not immediately clear, though the Trump administration described it — and earlier deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea — as necessary to stem the flow of dangerous drugs. He also revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other nations.
Trump also claimed the U.S. government would help run the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate signs of that. Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference where he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, that described the regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” 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.
Trump posted a photo on social media showing Maduro wearing a sweatsuit and a blindfold on board the USS Iwo Jima.
Early morning attack
The operation followed a monthslong Trump administration pressure campaign on the Venezuelan leader, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
Maduro had decried prior military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday as Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in the capital city of Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”
Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the U.S. of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets.
The attack lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard. Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured but none were killed.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.
Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.
Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement demanding proof of life for Maduro and his wife.
Some streets in Caracas fill up
Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.
Maduro took over when Chávez 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 by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
In a demonstration of how polarizing a figure Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture and celebrate it.
At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro’s return.
“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”
Earlier, armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party.
In other parts of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack, as residents absorbed events. Some areas remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn’t sleep.”
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, people waved Venezuelan flags and banged pots and pans as vehicles passed by honking at them.
In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”
Questions of legality
Some legal experts raised immediate concerns about the operation’s legality.
Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast. Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”
Congressional leaders were not notified by the Trump administration about the military action until early Saturday morning, after it was already underway, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said was necessary to preserve the operation’s integrity.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called it a “decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives” and said the Trump administration was working to schedule briefings.
___ Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this report.