Overview
- President Donald Trump said U.S. forces seized Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores in a large-scale operation and are transferring them toward New York aboard the USS Iwo Jima to face narcoterrorism charges, a mission U.S. media report involved Delta Force.
- French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed the detention, called Venezuela “liberated,” and urged a peaceful transition led by opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia while backing María Corina Machado’s demand to free political prisoners.
- Opposition leader María Corina Machado framed the moment as the start of a democratic transition, prioritizing the release of all political detainees and appealing for broad international support.
- Political responses across Latin America diverged, with leaders in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile’s president‑elect welcoming the outcome as left-leaning governments in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia condemned the U.S. action; Russia and Cuba also denounced the operation.
- Argentina’s government celebrated the capture, restricted entry for Venezuelan officials, military members, regime-linked businesspeople, and U.S.-sanctioned individuals, and continued pressing for the return of missing gendarme Nahuel Gallo.