Key events
Closing summary
It’s just passed 1.45am in Caracas and 12.45am in New York and we’re about to shut this blog and continue our live coverage on another file here. We also have a full report on the US’s audacious capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, as well as an analysis by our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour. Below is a recap of the latest – thanks for reading.
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.
Trump had earlier warned 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:
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Rodríguez announced a commission to seek the release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
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Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a court appearance on Monday on drug charges.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid.
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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”.
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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”.
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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”.
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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.
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Hundreds of Chavismo supporters gathered in Caracus on Sunday to demand the release of Maduro and Flores.
With news agencies
Asked whether he would condemn the US action in Venezuela, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to wait to “establish the facts” and speak to Trump, but insisted the UK would “shed no tears” over the end of Maduro’s regime.
However, some of his own MP’s have been more outspoken, criticising America’s actions as a breach of international law.
Labour MP Kim Johnson questioned whether “we as a country still stand for international law and sovereignty”, while her colleague Richard Burgon described Starmer’s statement as “shameful and reckless”.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that “effectively our country has been rendered up as a Trump colony”, accusing the Government of “prevarication”.
In a post on X, Labour MP Clive Lewis said of the US action: “A clear breach of the Nuremberg principles – which the UK helped write.
“Now a [Labour Government] won’t even defend them. This silence isn’t diplomacy. It’s the moral equivalent of a white flag.”
Few in Caracas are celebrating as they face an uncertain post-Maduro future
There was a whirlwind of emotions on the streets of Caracas on Sunday, 24 hours after the first-ever large-scale US attack on South American soil.
“Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama.
“Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker from Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro.
Leandro voiced shock as the couple waited in a 100-person queue to buy flour, milk and butter alongside a quartet of nuns. “Who could have imagined that his would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked.
“If I thought it would improve the country I’d welcome it,” Leandro added, as shoppers were allowed into the overcrowded supermarket in small groups. “But I don’t believe this will happen. If they wanted peace, this isn’t the way to achieve it.”
More now on the announcement from the Cuban government that 32 of its country’s nationals were killed in the US operation in Venezuela over the weekend.
According to a statement read on Cuban state TV on Sunday night, military and police officers were in the country at the request of Venezuela’s government. Former president and revolutionary leader Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel sent condolences to their families. The names of the dead and the positions they held were not immediately disclosed by Cuban authorities.
Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela’s government and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, pointed to Cuban involvement in Venezuela over the weekend, saying that Maduro’s internal security apparatus was headed by Cubans and that they were “propping up Maduro.”
“All the guards that help protect Maduro — this is well known — their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans,” Rubio said.
Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez has announced a commission to seek the release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Rodríguez tapped her brother Jorge, president of the National Assembly, and Foreign Minister Yvan Gil to co-chair the commission. Information Minister Freddy Nanez will also be on the commission, according to the announcement.
Asian stocks have risen in Monday trading, while oil prices fluctuated, as investors weighed the impact of the US ouster of Nicolás Maduro.
The Venezuelan president’s removal will add to geopolitical risk on global markets, but traders appear to have chosen to focus on the long-running artificial intelligence boom and hopes for more US interest rate cuts.
Oil shifted between gains and losses after the US strikes on Caracas. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and more Venezuelan crude in the market could exacerbate oversupply concerns and add to recent pressure on prices.
Trump has said the US will send companies to fix the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure. But analysts say that alongside other major questions about the South American country’s future, substantially lifting its oil production will not be easy, quick or cheap.
Venezuela’s president was captured, flown to the US and is now facing trial in New York. What does the audacious ouster of Nicolás Maduro’s mean for the country – and the world?
Find out in our podcast here:
More on Donald Trump’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One: the president said elections in Venezuela would have to wait.
“We’re going to run it, fix it, we’ll have elections at the right time, but the main thing you have to fix is it’s a broken country,” he said.
Trump had harsh words for other US adversaries, saying Colombia’s leader was “not going to be doing it very long”, Communist-ruled Cuba was “ready to fall” and that Iran’s leadership would be “hit hard” if protesters were killed, AFP reports.
Trump earlier threatened that acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodriguez would pay a “big price” if she did not cooperate with the US.
Trump says second Venezuela strike possible and US ‘in charge’ of country
Donald Trump has said the US might launch a second military strike on Venezuela after President Nicolás Maduro’s capture if remaining members of the government did not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”.
Trump also insisted to reporters aboard Air Force One that the US was “in charge” of Venezuela after the weekend ousting but was also dealing with the new leadership in Caracas.
“We’re dealing with the people who just got sworn in,” the US president was quoted as saying when asked if he had spoken to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez. “Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer and it’ll be very controversial.”
Pressed on what he meant, Trump said: “It means we’re in charge.”
Trump said Rodriguez might pay a bigger price than Maduro “if she doesn’t do what’s right”, according to the Atlantic magazine.
The Trump administration has said it is willing to work with the rest of Maduro’s government as long as Washington’s goals are met, particularly opening Venezuela’s oil reserves to US investment.
Asked whether the operation was about oil or regime change, Trump replied: “It’s about peace on Earth.”
More now on Delcy Rodriguez’s call for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the US: Venezuela’s acting president also said that its relations with Washington should be based on “sovereign equality and non-interference”.
“These principles guide our diplomacy with the rest of the world,” Rodriguez posted in a statement on Telegram, also addressing Donald Trump directly and saying that “our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war”.
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.
Dozens of Cubans killed in US raid on Venezuela, says Havana
Sibylla Brodzinsky
Thirty-two Cubans were killed in “combat” during the US raid on Venezuela, the Cuban government announced on Sunday
A decree issued by the office of President Miguel Díaz-Canel declaring two days of national mourning said the Cubans present in Venezuela “fell after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of installations”
Díaz-Canel wrote on X:
Honor and glory to the brave Cuban combattants who died facing terrorists in imperial uniform, who kidnapped and illegally removed from his country the president of Venezuela and his wife.
The Cubans were “carrying out missions in representation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the interior ministry” at the request of Venezuela, according to the decree.
Cuba has long provided security advisers and intelligence agents to Venezuela in support of the Maduro government.
Rodriguez calls for respectful relationship with Trump
Venezuela’s interim leader has reportedly asked Donald Trump for a balanced and respectful relationship.
Delcy Rodriguez has also, as mentioned, held her first cabinet meeting since the US seized leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
State channel VTV showed Rodriguez at a table in the Miraflores presidential palace alongside two other key Maduro loyalists, defence minister Vladimir Padrino and interior minister Diosdado Cabello.
Trump says US military operation in Colombia ‘sounds good to me’
More now on Donald Trump’s comments about Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s leftwing president: Trump said the country was being “run by a sick man” and accused him of producing and selling cocaine to the US, adding: “He’s not going to be doing it very long.”
According to an audio recording of Trump talking to media aboard Air Force One on Sunday, when a reporter asks if that means there will be a US operation in Colombia, the president says: “It sounds good to me.”
The US and Colombia have had ongoing tensions for months amid the US military build-up in the Caribbean and Petro has been one of Trump’s harshest international critics.
The Colombian leader has said his government has been seizing cocaine at unprecedented rates and last month he invited Trump to visit the country – the world’s largest producer of cocaine – to see government efforts to destroy drug-producing labs.
At the weekend Petro called the US action in Venezuela an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America that would lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Petro’s criticism of the US campaign against Venezuela, and its targeting of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, has infuriated Trump, who on Saturday said the Colombian leader should “watch his ass”.
Donald Trump is being quoted as saying Operation Colombia “sounds good to me”.
Reuters is also quoting the US president as saying Colombia is run by a sick man and that he won’t be doing that for very long.
We’ll bring you Trump’s exact quotes as we get them.
Donald Trump is reportedly saying he is looking more at getting Venezuela “fixed” than holding an election there right now.
He is also being quoted as saying “we’re in charge” in Venezuela.
More on this as it comes to hand.
As just posted, British cabinet minister Darren Jones – a close ally of PM Keir Starmer – has called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”.
Transfer Venezuela power ‘quickly’, says UK minister
A British cabinet minister has called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela to be reached “quickly”, after Donald Trump declared the US would “run” the country until a new government took over.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, declined to say whether he thought the American strikes on Caracas early on Saturday were legal, insisting it was for “international courts” to judge, PA Media reports.
The UK was reportedly not informed of the operation that saw Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro captured and flown to New York before it was carried out.
“The United Kingdom was not involved in any way,” Jones told Sky News.
We were not informed of it beforehand. So it’s not for us to judge whether it’s been a success or not. That’s for the Americans to speak to.
The minister and close ally of Starmer added:
I think the important thing now, given the events that have unfolded over the last 48 hours, is that we are quickly able to get to a point where we can get to a peaceful transition to a president in Venezuela that has the support of the people of Venezuela.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, appeared to dismiss the idea of imminent elections when asked how soon a vote could take place later on Sunday, telling NBC: “I think it’s premature at this point.”
