United States leaders reacted early Saturday morning as President Trump confirmed overnight military strikes in Venezuela and announced the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
Mr. Trump said Maduro and his wife had been flown out of Venezuela, but did not say where the pair were. Venezuelan officials have called for proof of life. The U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture them, officials told CBS News. The Trump administration notified Congressional leaders about the operation only after it began, Congressional sources told CBS News.
Maduro, 63, has led Venezuela since 2013. His most recent election was disputed by international observers and the U.S. recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner. The U.S. imposed sanctions against election officials for allegedly rigging the outcome, but Maduro was still sworn in for a third term in January.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Saturday morning that Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism charges.
It was not immediately clear whether the nation’s top lawyer was referring only to charges contained in an indictment filed against the Venezuelan leader in 2020, or if there would be new or different charges filed in an indictment Saturday.
In 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that Maduro and other senior Venezuelan government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to traffic cocaine and weapons to the United States
The Justice Department also accused Maduro of leading a criminal organization called Cártel de Los Soles in 2020. The Trump administration designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization last year, though experts have questioned that characterization. The U.S. has been offering a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.
A CBS News poll in November found that 70% of Americans would oppose the U.S. taking military action in Venezuela, and 75% said the Trump administration would need Congressional approval. Most surveyed also said they did not see Venezuela as a major threat to the United States.
Republicans react
Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said he had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “who confirmed that Maduro is in U.S. custody and will face justice for his crimes against our citizens.”
Cotton said that Venezuela’s interim government “must now decide whether to continue the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether to act like a normal nation and return to the civilized world.”
“I urge them to choose wisely,” he said.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said that he also spoke with Rubio, who said that Maduro would be brought to the U.S. Lee also said that Rubio “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
Lee added that the operation “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack,” but did not offer any other details.
Vice President JD Vance praised the “brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”
“Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says,” Vance said. The vice president highlighted Maduro’s previous indictments as justification for the operation.
“You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,” he said.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, released a statement calling Maduro’s capture “an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States.” He said he spoke to Rubio on Saturday morning and was looking forward to further briefings when the Senate returns next week.
House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas, drew comparisons to the arrest of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1990.
“This is a historic day in the Western Hemisphere, 36 years after the capture of Manuel Noriega, when the U.S showed we will not allow cartels to take over countries in our shared neighborhood. The arrest of Cartel De Los Soles leader Nicolas Maduro shows this clearly,” Crawford said. “Venezuela could never start the road back to the great nation it once was until Maduro was out of the way. I call upon the Venezuelan people to reclaim their freedom.”
Democrats react
Democrat lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for acting unilaterally.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, called Maduro “an illegitimate ruler” but said he had “seen no evidence that his presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without Congressional authorization, nor have I heard a strategy for the day after and how we will prevent Venezuela from descending into chaos.”
“The Administration must immediately brief Congress on its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision,” Himes said.
Sen. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, said that Mr. Trump “rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.” Kim also accused Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of lying to Congress when they met with leaders last month about fatal strikes on alleged drug vessels and said the Trump administration’s goal was not regime change.
“Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela,” said Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the operation an “unauthorized military attack” and a “sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
“That history is replete with failures, and doubling down on it makes it difficult to make the claim with a straight face that other countries should respect the United States’ sovereignty when we do not do the same,” Kaine said.
He said that his bipartisan resolution stipulating the U.S. not enter war with Venezuela without a clear Congressional authorization will be up for a vote next week.
“Where will this go next? Will the President deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies?” Kaine said. “Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorization from people’s elected legislature before putting servicemembers at risk. It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade … We’ve entered the 250th year of American democracy and cannot allow it to devolve into the tyranny that our founders fought to escape.”
Florida residents cheer operation
South Florida, which is home to a large population of Venezuelans, saw celebrations early Saturday. People hugged, sang the U.S. and Venezuelan national anthems, and waved flags outside the community gathering spot El Arepazo.
“President Trump has changed the course of history in our hemisphere. Our country & the world are safer for it,” said Florida Republican Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez. “Today’s decisive action is this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s a big day in Florida, where the majority of Venezuelan, Cuban, & Nicaraguan exiles reside. This is the community I represent & we are overwhelmed with emotion and hope.”