Machado welcomes ‘huge step for humanity’ – as it happened

It’s just past 11.30pm in New York and 12.30am in Caracas and we’re about to close this blog and continue our live coverage in another file here. Here’s a recap of latest news – thanks for being with us.

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado has said in her first televised interview since the US military’s weekend raid on Venezuela that she hasn’t spoken Donald Trump since October 2025.

“Actually, I spoke with President Trump on October 10, the same day the [Noble peace] prize was announced, [but] not since then,” she said on Fox News. Machado – widely seen as deposed president Nicolás Maduro’s most credible opponent – left Venezuela last month to travel to Norway to accept the award and hasn’t returned since.

“I’m planning to go as soon as possible back home,” she told Fox when asked about her plans to return to Venezuela.

Trump on Saturday dismissed the idea of working with Machado, saying: “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” US media reported on Monday that a classified CIA assessment presented to Trump concluded that senior Maduro loyalists, including interim president Delcy Rodríguez, were best positioned to maintain stability.

Despite this, Machado welcomed the US actions as “a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity”.

In other key developments:

• Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the US Senate, expressed discontent with a classified briefing for Congressional leaders, calling the Trump administration’s “plan for the US ‘running Venezuela’ … vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying”.

• Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House, emerged from the classified briefing insisting that “we are not at war” and “this is not a regime change,” but “a demand for a change of behaviour by a regime”.

• The reported appearance of unidentified drones over the presidential palace in Venezuela’s capital on Monday night filled the night sky with the sound of heavy gunfire and tracer fire as the regime’s security forces reacted to what they mistook for another raid.

• Trump suggested to NBC News that US taxpayers could fund the rebuilding of Venezuela’s infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.”

• White House adviser Stephen Miller reaffirmed to CNN the Trump administration’s position on Greenland becoming a part of the US.

We are continuing to track the aftermath of Saturday’s US military raid on Venezuela, with little clarity as to what comes next. Here are the latest developments:

• María Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader, who reportedly angered Donald Trump by accepting the Nobel peace prize he had his heart set on, used an appearance on the president’s favorite Fox News show to offer to share it with him.

• Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the US Senate, expressed discontent with a classified briefing for Congressional leaders, calling the Trump administration’s “plan for the US ‘running Venezuela’… vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying.”

• Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House, emerged from the classified briefing insisting that “we are not at war” and “this is not a regime change,” but “a demand for a change of behavior by a regime.”

• The reported appearance of unidentified drones over the presidential palace in Venezuela’s capital on Monday night filled the night sky with the sound of heavy gunfire and tracer fire as the regime’s security forces reacted to what they mistook for another raid.

• In an interview with NBC News, Trump suggested that US taxpayers could fund the rebuilding of Venezuela’s infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue”, the president said.

• In an interview with CNN, White house advisor Stephen Miller reaffirmed the Trump administration’s position on Greenland becoming a part of the US.

María Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader, used an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Monday to assure Donald Trump that she would like to share the Nobel peace prize she won last year with him.

Machado, whose failure to immediately surrender the Nobel prize to Trump reportedly angered the US president, also told Fox News on Monday that she plans to return to her country as soon as possible.

In the aftermath of the US military operation to depose Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president who is widely believed to have stolen the last election from the opposition, Trump dismissed the idea that Machado should run the country. “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said. “She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Two people close to the White House told the Washington Post that Machado had alienated Trump by accepting the Nobel prize, instead of giving it to him.

Although Machado dedicated the award to Trump, her acceptance of the prize was the “ultimate sin” in Trump’s eyes, one of the people told the Post. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” this person said.

Speaking to Hannity, Trump’s close ally, Machado was effusive in her praise for Trump, but she admitted that she had not yet offered to give him the Nobel prize. “It hasn’t happened yet,” she said, “but I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe, the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, certainly want to give it to him, and share it with him.”

Agence France-Presse, the French news service, reports that gunfire near the Venezuelan presidential palace on Monday night was a response from local security forces to the appearance of unidentified drones over the Miraflores palace in central Caracas.

A source close to the government said the situation was now under control.

As we noted earlier, the sound of heavy gunfire and images of tracer fire in the sky were captured in video clips uploaded to social media after 8pm local time.

A person who lives five blocks from the palace told the news agency the incident lasted about a minute.

“The first thing that came to mind was to see if there were planes flying overhead but there were not. I just saw two red lights in the sky,” the resident near the palace said.

“Everyone was looking out their windows to see if there was a plane, to see what was happening.”

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, just emerged from a classified briefing by the Trump administration on the US attack on Venezuela insisting that “we are not at war” and “this is not regime change.”

“With regard to the War Powers,” Johnson said, “we are not at war. We do not have US armed forces in Venezuela and we are not occupying that country.”

“The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, that is true, but it also vests the president of the United States, with vast authorities as commander-in-chief,” Johnson added.

The speaker said that he was first informed of the military action at 4am Saturday in a phone call from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

“This is not a regime change,” the speaker argued. “This is a demand for a change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now and we are hopeful that they will be able to correct their action.”

The speaker, who relies on Donald Trump’s support to keep his job, then echoed the unproven allegations that the deposed president of Venezuela had directed drug cartel violence and drug trafficking in the United States.

The new government of Venezuela, Johnson said, led by the deposed president’s deputy, “cannot participate with narcoterrorist and very dangerous international criminal organizations that harm and target Americans frankly, and traffic all of these dangerous drugs into our country.”

“We have a way of persuasion, because their oil exports, as you know, have been seized and I think that will bring the country to a new governance”, he continued. “So we don’t expect troops on the ground, we don’t expect direct involvement beyond just coercing the new, the interim government.”

Lawmakers emerged from a classified briefing with sharply different assessments of the Trump administration’s military intervention in Venezuela. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, told reporters: “This briefing, while very extensive and long, posed far more questions than it ever answered.”

“Their plan for the US ‘running Venezuela’ is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying,” he said. “I asked for, I would have liked, I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries.”

“When the United States engages in this kind of regime change and so-called nation building, it always ends up hurting the United States,” Schumer added. “I left the briefing feeling that it would again.”

Shots were fired near the Venezuelan presidential palace in Caracas on Monday night, witnesses and a source close to presidency told Agence France-Presse, the French news service. The news agency reported that a source said the situation was “under control”.

Multiple video clips posted on social media, which appeared to capture the sound of heavy gunfire and images of tracer fire in the sky, were geolocated to an area just north of the presidential compound by Blake Spendley, an open-source investigator for Hunterbrook Media who previously led investigations for the US Navy and Marine Corps.

In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Donald Trump suggested that US taxpayers could fund the rebuilding of Venezuela’s infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil.

Trump acknowledged that “a lot of money” will need to be spent to increase oil production in Venezuela, but suggested the US government could pay American oil companies to do the work.

“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue”, the president said.

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, reportedly plans to meet representatives of Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil at the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference in Miami later this week.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the major oil companies might be much more reluctant than Trump says to invest in Venezuela, despite its large reserve of oil, in part because there’s so much uncertainty about who will be running the country.

“The oil industry is saying that they don’t know what Venezuela’s government is going to look like tomorrow,” the Journal’s Collin Eaton said in a podcast interview on Monday. “They need sort of a long, stable environment to invest in. So while President Trump has sort of come out and said that these oil companies are going to invest a lot of money in Venezuela, the details are unclear, and we may hear some answers this week as the administration continues to talk about this with oil companies.”

Venezuela produces on average about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day, down from the 3.5 million barrels a day produced in 1999 before a government takeover of the domestic industry.

Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee, and Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat, released a joint statement protesting the Trump administration’s decision to exclude them from the classified briefing on the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, despite the fact that the justification offered by the White House for the raid was the deposed Venezuelan leader’s indictment on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.

The statement reads:

“President Trump and Secretary Rubio have stated that this was a law enforcement operation that was made at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Senate Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over DOJ, FBI and DEA, and all three agencies are led by individuals who our Committee vetted and processed. The Attorney General herself will be present at today’s briefing.

“There is no legitimate basis for excluding the Senate Judiciary Committee from this briefing. The administration’s refusal to acknowledge our Committee’s indisputable jurisdiction in this matter is unacceptable and we are following up to ensure the Committee receives warranted information regarding Maduro’s arrest.”

The federal judge overseeing the trial of Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan president, and his wife, Cilia Flores, is a 92-year-old Clinton appointee who has previously ruled against the Trump administration, blocking its attempt to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador last year.

The US district court judge, Alvin Hellerstein, ruled last April that alleged Venezuelan gang members facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act had to get an opportunity to challenge their deportations before being removed from the southern district of New York, where he has served since 1998.

Hellerstein, who was going into his freshman year at the Bronx high school of science when Donald Trump was born in Queens in 1946, also denied Trump’s effort to have his New York state fraud trial, over illegal payments to an adult film actor, moved to federal court.

The Forward, a newspaper that has tracked the fortunes of New York’s Jewish community since 1897, reports that Hellerstein has spoken about “the role his Jewish identity has played in his life and career”. In a 2023 video interview, Hellerstein described his work advocating for Soviet Jews. In 2016, his weekly tennis matches with three rabbis his age was the subject of a New York Times story.

In one case, the Forward noted, Hellerstein “declined to accept a guilty plea from Alejandro Orozco, a Mexican national who had unknowingly transported drugs hidden in a truck he was hired to drive. Hellerstein helped connect Orozco with an immigration lawyer, and the man later obtained US citizenship.”

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House, just told reporters in Washington that it was “outrageous” for Donald Trump to claim that his administration was justified in failing to notify Congress of the planned attack on Venezuela to prevent leaks to the media.

The administration had “a responsibility to notify Congress”, Jeffries said, “and in the context of the United States Constitution, it’s the Congress that has the sole power to declare war. So the Constitution isn’t a matter of inconvenience; it is a requirement.”

“There is no Trump exception to the United States constitution,” said the New York congressman, who hopes to be House speaker after the November elections. “And there’s no evidence that the Trump administration has ever presented of congressional leaders being briefed in a classified setting and that information then being leaked in a way that undermined America’s national security interests.”

Speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, attacked the Trump administration for having “no plan” for what comes next in Venezuela, and called Donald Trump’s vague statements that the United States will “run” the country a recipe for “chaos”.

“Maduro is a tyrant, nobody mourns what has happened to him,” Schumer said, in reference to that country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by US forces on Saturday. “But now the crucial question is what comes next for Venezuela and, more importantly, for the United States. Nobody really seems to know. The administration’s story keeps changing by the hour.”

There was, Schumer said, “no plan, no clarity: only chaos.”

“The danger in Venezuela is only beginning,” Schumer added. “Donald Trump has opened a Pandora’s box, and things will get out of hand very quickly. And if Donald Trump tries to do to Colombia and Greenland what he did in Venezuela, the disasters and consequences could compound exponentially.”

Reading from prepared remarks, the Democratic senator from New York tripped over his words several times, at one point referring to “the war in Viet-” before correcting himself to say “the war in Venezuela”.

“The next step for Congress is clear: we must stop Trump’s folly by invoking the War Powers Act,” Schumer said, before pledging to join a push later this week on a war powers resolution that could constrain Trump.

Senate Republicans celebrated the arrest and detention of Nicolás Maduro. Calling the deposed Venezuelan leader a “known, indicted, narcoterrorist in league with drug traffickers killing Americans for profit”.

In a post on social media, GOP lawmakers in Congress’s upper chamber said that “Maduro didn’t just tolerate the drug traffickers or lose control of his territory—he was one of them.”

“Republicans are glad he’s gone – but Democrats are furious,” they added.

Following the capture, arrest and detention of Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is set to meet with top US oil executives, according to a report from Reuters – citing a source familiar with the matter.

The aim to revitalize oil production comes after nearly two decades of control by Venezuela over US energy operations in the country.

According to Reuters, the three biggest US oil companies – Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron – have not yet had any conversations with the administration about Maduro’s ouster, per four oil industry executives familiar with the matter. This contradicts Trump’s statements over the weekend that he had already held meetings with “all” the US oil companies, both before and after the Venezuelan leader was seized.

The US faced widespread condemnation for a “crime of aggression” in Venezuela at the emergency meeting of the United Nations security council on Monday.

Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among countries that denounced Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch its leader, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to stand trial in the US.

“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” Sérgio França Danese, the Brazilian ambassador to the UN, told the meeting. “These acts constitute a very serious affront to the sovereignty of Venezuela and set an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”

Trump’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war.

Read more about what happened at the meeting here.

The Senate is back in session today, with the House set to return tomorrow.

Later, top administration officials, including attorney general Pam Bondi, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and chairman of the join chiefs of staff Dan Caine, will provide a classified briefing for Republican and Democratic congressional leaders about the January military strikes in Venezuela that saw the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, according to a source familiar with the upcoming meeting.

Members of the administration will speak with the “Gang of Eight” – the informal name of leaders of both parties in both chambers of Congress, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.

As of Sunday, the lawmakers, who are traditionally consulted on national security issues, had yet to be contacted. “Still haven’t got a phone call,” said Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. He told CNN: “I’m a member of the gang of eight, and I have yet to get a phone call from anyone from the administration.”

Congressional leaders on both the House and Senate armed services and foreign affairs committees will also be present at today’s briefing from Trump officials.

One notable point throughout today’s hearing– which is typically a dry procedural affair where the charges are presented to the defendant and they are able to enter their plea – is the extra comments from both Maduro and Flores.

Both attempted to directly refute the Trump administration’s long-held stance that the Maduro’s presidency is fundamentally illegitimate. At one point, the captured leader said that he was “still president of my country”, while Flores identified herself as “first lady of the Republic of Venezuela”.

Today’s hearing has now concluded, but judge Hellerstein noted that the next hearing will take place on 17 March at 11am ET.

Lawyers for both Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, said that their clients won’t seek bail at this time. The attorneys added that they’ll seek an application at a later date.

After her husband’s plea, Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty today.

She identified herself as the “first lady of the Republic of Venezuela” and said she is “not guilty, completely innocent” after making her plea.

The deposed leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, pleaded “not guilty” to all four counts against him today, including drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” Maduro told judge Alvin Hellerstein in court today.

Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, are now appearing before district judge Alvin Hellerstein. They are set to be arraigned today.

According to CNN, Maduro is shackled at the ankles. He and his wife are at the same table, both with wired headphones – presumably to hear a translation.

The judge is reading through an abridged version of the indictment against Maduro and Flores.

Nicolás Maduro Guerra, who is an elected official in Venezuela, appeared before the country’s national assembly today, saying that the US “kidnapped” his father and first lady Cilia Flores.

Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, addressed the security council today, insisting that there is “no war in Venezuela” after the large scale strikes on the country and the capture of its president and first lady.

“We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades,” Waltz added, claiming that there is precedent for this kind of action after the US captured the former leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, in 1989.

Today, Waltz said that the “overwhelming evidence” of Maduro’s crimes will be “presented openly in US court proceedings”. A reminder that the deposed president is charged with drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and weapons possession.

“Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker. He was an illegitimate so called president,” the ambassador said. “I want to reiterate President Trump gave diplomacy a chance. He offered Maduro multiple offerings he tried to de escalate. Maduro refused to take them.”

At the UN security council’s emergency meeting today, China condemned the military action by the US in Venezuela.

“As a permanent member of the Council, the US has disregarded the grave concerns of the international community, wantonly trampled upon Venezuela’s sovereignty, security and legitimate rights and interests, and seriously violated the principles of sovereign equality,” said Fu Cong, China’s representative to the UN.

“No country can act as the world’s police, nor can any state presume to be the international judge … We demand that the United States change its course, cease its bullying and coercive practices”

China also called for the US to release Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, from detention.

Outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse in Manhattan where Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will face a federal judge today, dozens of demonstrators are calling for the release of the deposed Venezuelan leader. Several people held signs that read “Free President Maduro”.

However, a number of protesters also praised the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela, and celebrated Maduro’s detention.

At the emergency meeting of the UN security council, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, issued a statement that was read out by diplomat Rosemary DiCarlo.

“I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted,” Guterres said.

“The latest developments follow a period of heightened tensions, beginning in mid August, as discussed in this council on two previous occasions, I have consistently stressed the imperative of full respect by all for international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, which provides the foundation for the maintenance of international peace and security. I remain deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected.”

International labor union federations are strongly opposing the Trump administration’s military operations in Venezuela.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) issued a joint statement condemning the actions, including condemning the military intervention, defending the sovereignty of Venezuela, and calling for the release of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, his wife, Cilia Flores, and any other citizens detained in the operation.

The ITUC represents 191 million workers in 169 countries and territories and has 340 national affiliates.

“These acts in no way defend democracy; they are clear acts of aggression as part of a militarised foreign policy agenda motivated by unilateral economic interests,” said ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle in a statement. “Threats of kidnapping and the misuse of the courts to attack a sovereign government undermine the international rule of law and set a precedent of imperial coercion that jeopardises peace everywhere.”

The labor union federation noted it agreed with positions expressed by the governments of Brazil, Mexico, and other countries calling for a return to diplomatic channels and peace.

Rafael Freire, TUCA General Secretary, added, “we defend Venezuela and all of Latin America as a territory of peace. We do not accept invasion and violence against our peoples and territories. The trade union movement, as always, is on the frontline of defending sovereignty and self-determination, democracy and human rights.”

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest federation of labor unions in the US, shared the statement in a post on social media, adding “we join the international labor community in condemning President Trump’s unconstitutional actions in Venezuela.”

The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting shortly, following the United States’ rendition of Nicolás Maduro, his wife, and large-scale strikes in Caracas, Venezuela.

Venezuela requested the meeting, with support from two permanent members of the security council – Russia and China.

In its 3 January letter requesting today’s meeting, Venezuela accused the US of carrying out a series of “brutal, unjustified, and unilateral armed attacks” against civilian and military sites in the country. It also accused the US of violating the UN charter.

Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has announced he will not seek re-election in 2026.

Walz, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2024, has been battling a scandal within the state after several Medicaid programs were defrauded of millions of dollars. The incumbent governor initially announced he would seek a “historic” third term in office.

“As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz said in a statement today. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.”

Walz added that the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are “are playing politics with the future of our state”.

He added: “We’ve got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongly confiscating childcare funding that Minnesotans rely on. It is disgusting. And it is dangerous.”

A reminder that noted conspiracist, Trump loyalist, and MyPillow founder, Mike Lindell announced he would seek the Republican nomination for governor late last year.

We have the full video of deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being escorted off a helicopter to attend their arraignment at a Manhattan courthouse.

The indictment alleged Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders have, for more than 25 years, “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”

The indictment alleged Maduro and his allies “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to major drug trafficking groups, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang. These criminal organizations sent profits to high-ranking officials who protected them in exchange, the justice department said.

Among other specific acts, Maduro is accused of selling Venezuelan diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers and facilitating flights under diplomatic cover to bring drug proceeds back from Mexico to Venezuela.

Maduro was indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, an office within the justice department known for its aggressive prosecutions.

The same prosecutor’s office returned an indictment against Maduro in 2020, with the same four charges. The updated indictment made public on Saturday adds some new details and co-defendants, including Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.

The first lady is accused of ordering kidnappings and murders, as well as accepting bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between drug traffickers and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office.

Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have arrived at a Manhattan court building, where the full list of charges against them will be read out later today, the BBC is reporting.

We have a picture through on the newswires which apparently shows Nicolás Maduro on his way to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Manhattan US Courthouse, where he is due to make an initial appearance on drugs and weapons charges in a couple of hours.

The court appearance will be largely procedural, but will start what will probably be a protracted legal battle.

As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime – including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers.

Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.

Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, is also due to make an initial appearance at the Manhattan federal court today.

The New York Times and Washington Post learned of the US raid on Venezuela shortly before it was due to be launched on Friday night, but did not publish anything immediately to avoid compromising the military operation and endangering American soldiers, Semafor reports, citing two sources.

Along with much of the so-called “mainstream media” Trump has attacked the journalism of both outlets as his administration continues waging an assault on the traditional news industry at a time when it is declining.

But despite the open hostility, both outlets, according to Semafor, postponed publishing their stories for several hours after the Trump administration reportedly said coverage could have exposed US troops performing the operation, which took two hours and 28 minutes to carry out.

Spokespeople for the White House, the Pentagon, and the Washington Post did not offer a comment on discussions between reporters and officials on Friday evening, and a spokesperson for the NYT did not offer an immediate response to an approach by Semafor. We have not yet been able to independently verify its reporting.

China’s foreign ministry has condemned the US’s military actions in Venezuela as a violation of international law and has denounced the use of force against a sovereign country and its president. Beijing has urged the US to release Nicolás Maduro – who will appear in a New York court later today – and his wife, Cilia Flores, immediately.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told journalists this morning that Beijing maintains a “positive communication and cooperation” with the Venezuelan government and China has said it is monitoring the situation closely.

Analysts have warned that the US attack on Venezuela could embolden China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea.

Delcy Rodríguez is due to be officially sworn in as Venezuela’s president shortly (at 08:00 local time; 12:00 GMT) after the country’s supreme court designated her as interim president over the weekend.

She had pledged loyalty to Nicolás Maduro on Saturday and condemned his capture as an “atrocity”, but on Sunday called for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the US, which has warned they might make a fresh military intervention if she does not accommodate their demands.

Speaking to the Atlantic, Donald Trump said on Sunday: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

As my colleague Rory Carroll notes in this story, Rodríguez, 56, is a political veteran who served as Maduro’s vice-president and oil minister and defended the regime against accusations of terrorism, drug-running and election-stealing, yet for now she is Trump’s favoured option to lead Venezuela.

She reportedly has the backing of the military, along with ministers including those in the interior and defence departments.

In our opening post, we mentioned that Cuba said that 32 of its citizens had been killed in the US operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Venezuela and bring them to America. We can bring you a bit more information about this now.

The Cuban government said the 32 people who were killed were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies, with two days of national mourning declared.

A government statement read:

Our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of bombings on the facilities.

Cuba, a strong ally of Venezuela, has provided some security for Maduro since he came to power. It was not clear how many Cubans were guarding the Venezuelan president when they died and how many may were killed elsewhere.

Venezuela has not officially confirmed how many people were killed during the audacious US attack on Maduro’s compound in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Saturday.

But the New York Times reported that at least 40 people, including civilians and soldiers, were killed in the attack. The estimate came from a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Markets are reacting to the turmoil over Venezuela and the US actions, with investors seeking the safe haven of gold and buying up shares in defence companies. But with Donald Trump making Venezuela’s oil reserves central to his plans for the country, the price of crude is falling. You can follow the market reaction in our business blog with my colleague, Graeme Wearden, here:

Colombian president Gustavo Petro has rejected threats by Donald Trump and the US president’s accusations that he is drug trafficker.

Trump on Sunday threatened Colombia with similar military action to the weekend raid against Venezuela, saying Colombia was “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States” but that he “is not going to be doing it very long”.

Petro rebuffed the accusations, saying his “name does not appear in court records”.

“Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump,” Petro said on X on Sunday.

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 harshly criticised the Trump administration’s military action in the region and accused Washington of abducting Maduro “without legal basis”, as Agence France-Presse reports. In a later post to X on Sunday, Petro added that “friends do not bomb”.

European leaders emerged divided and torn as they tried to welcome the ejection of Venezuela’s authoritarian president but still uphold the principles of international law that did not appear to allow Donald Trump to seize Nicolás Maduro, let alone declare that the US will run Venezuela and control its oil industry.

Europe tried to focus on the principle of a democratic transition, pointing out that the continent had not recognised Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela since what were widely regarded as fraudulent elections in June 2024.

But Trump’s rejection of the Nobel prize-winning Venezuelan opposition figurehead, María Corina Machado, was awkward. Trump said she did not have support or respect in Venezuela, but European leaders have embraced her as leading an opposition that deserves power.

You can read the full analysis here:

Hello and welcome to our live coverage after US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and took him to the US to face drug charges.

Donald Trump said after the military operation early on Saturday that the US would “run” Venezuela and warned on Sunday that the US might launch a second strike if the government’s remaining members did not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”.

Venezuelan vice-president and Maduro ally Delcy Rodríguez has been appointed acting president and offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration in what could be a major shift in relations between the governments.

In a conciliatory message on Instagram on Sunday she said she hoped to build “respectful relations” with Trump.

“We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez said.

In a televised address earlier Rodríguez gave no indication she would cooperate with Trump, saying what was being done to Venezuela was “an atrocity that violates international law”, referring to Trump’s government as “extremists” and maintaining that Maduro was Venezuela’s rightful leader.

But Trump warned later that if Rodríguez didn’t fall in line, “she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro”.

In other key developments:

• Rodríguez announced a commission to seek the release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

• Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a court appearance on Monday on drug charges.

• Top officials in Maduro’s government called the seizure of Maduro and his wife a kidnapping. “Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” interior minister Diosdado Cabello said.

• Trump’s administration described Maduro’s capture as a law-enforcement mission to force him to face US criminal charges filed in 2020, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied criminal involvement.

• Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, reportedly said his father’s supporters were more resolved than ever to support Maduro and the ousted president would return. “We will take to the streets, we will convene the people.”

• Trump suggested Colombia and Mexico could also face military action if they did not reduce the flow of illicit drugs to the US, saying: “Operation Colombia sounds good to me.”

• Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed stunned Venezuelans. The operation was Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.

• Venezuelan defence minister Gen Vladimir Padrino said on state television the US attack killed soldiers, civilians and a “large part” of Maduro’s security detail “in cold blood”. Venezuela’s armed forces had been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.

• The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid.

• The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay said in a joint statement the US actions “constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population”.

• All EU countries except Hungary issued a statement calling for restraint by “all actors” and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in order to “restore democracy”.

• UK prime minister Keir Starmer said Britain was not involved in the attack but refused to condemn it. British cabinet minister Darren Jones – a close ally of Starmer – called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”.

• Trump suggested the US would not push for immediate elections to install a new government but rather would work with remaining members of the Maduro administration to clamp down on drug trafficking and overhaul its oil industry. He said US oil companies needed “total access” to the country’s vast reserves.

• Hundreds of Chavismo supporters gathered in Caracas on Sunday to demand the release of Maduro and Flores.
  With news agencies