Maduro Held in New York After U.S. Operation as White House Says It Will Oversee Venezuela Transition

Overview

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores were flown to New York under heavy federal escort and transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after their capture in Caracas.
• U.S. prosecutors announced new charges in New York, including narcoterrorism and cocaine import conspiracy, with an initial court appearance expected in federal court in Manhattan in the coming days.
• Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to assume the interim presidency, but state media showed no swearing-in and she publicly demanded Maduro’s release and denounced the U.S. action.
• The extraction followed months of planning that deployed roughly 150 U.S. aircraft, struck Venezuelan air defenses, and moved the detainees via the USS Iwo Jima; U.S. officials reported no American fatalities.
• Global reaction split as some governments backed the move and others condemned it, the UN secretary-general voiced concern, and the Security Council is set to meet Monday while U.S. officials work on an as-yet incomplete post-Maduro framework that includes proposed oil-sector involvement.