The US will temporarily run Venezuela after American forces captured the country's president and first lady in an extraordinary military strike, US President Donald Trump says.
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized at their home, flown out of the country and placed on a US-bound warship to face a criminal trial in New York, Mr Trump said.
"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he said. The US "can't take a chance that someone else takes over".
The military action follows months of escalating tensions between the US and the South American nation, which Mr Trump accuses of operating as a "narco-terrorist" regime under a corrupt and illegitimate Maduro dictatorship.
"Late last night and early today, at my direction, the United States armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela," Mr Trump told media at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
"Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea, was used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II."
The operation has sparked street celebrations from Venezuelans around the world, millions of whom have fled the country since Mr Maduro took power in 2013.
Others, opposed to the intervention, staged snap protests outside the White House in Washington and in New York's Times Square, as well as in Latin American and European cities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the US's actions set a dangerous precedent.
"He's deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected," Mr Guterres's spokesperson said in a statement.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday morning, US time, at the request of Colombia.
Some international law experts say the attack appears to blatantly breach the UN Charter, which only permits member states to use force against another in two circumstances: either with the endorsement of the Security Council, or in self-defence.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia supported a peaceful, democratic transition in Venezuela that reflected the will of its people.
"We urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy in order to secure regional stability and prevent escalation," he wrote on X.
The post did not explicitly endorse nor condemn the US strike, but said Australia was "monitoring developments" and had "long held concerns" about the situation in Venezuela.
The leaders of Mexico and Brazil condemned the intervention, along with America's adversaries Russia, China and Iran. Argentina praised the US action.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X he would "shed no tears" about the end of Mr Maduro's regime, but later told the BBC he needed the full facts to determine if international law had been broken.
Mr Maduro and his wife arrived in New York on Saturday evening, local time.
Court documents show the US plans to charge Mr Maduro and Ms Flores with offences related to "narco-terrorism conspiracy", cocaine trafficking, and conspiring to "possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States".
Uncertain future
Mr Trump gave few specifics about how the US would run Venezuela.
"We're going to be running it with a group and we're going to make sure it's run properly," he said.
He indicated his cabinet would initially be in charge.
"It's largely going to be, for a period of time, the people that are standing behind me," he told the press conference, where he was flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and others.
Mr Trump also said the US was "ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to".
"The first attack was so successful, we probably don't have to do a second, but we're prepared to do a second wave," he said.
In an earlier TV interview, he warned Mr Maduro's allies inside Venezuela: "If they stay loyal, the future is really bad for them."
He later told the New York Post that US troops would not be sent back in, as long as Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez "does what we want".
"We've spoken to her numerous times and she understands," Mr Trump said.
He earlier said she had been sworn in as the interim president.
However, speaking on Venezuelan state television, Ms Rodriguez said Mr Maduro was the "only president" of Venezuela. The country's defence minister, Vladimir Padrino, vowed Venezuelans would "find the strength and resist to triumph".
Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, praised the US action and said the "hour of freedom had arrived".
In a post on X, Ms Machado said the US had fulfilled a promise to enforce the law.
She called on Venezuelans in the country and abroad to get ready to mobilise to help restore democracy.
"Today we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power," she wrote in Spanish.
But Mr Trump later said it would be "very tough for her to be the leader".
"She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country," he said.
Operation Absolute Resolve
More than 150 US aircraft were deployed from 20 bases to carry out the mission, termed Operation Absolute Resolve, said the US's top military officer, General Dan Caine.
No US personnel were killed and no equipment was lost in the strike, which was the "culmination of months of planning and rehearsal". It was not clear if there were any Venezuelan casualties.
"We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional," said General Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
US helicopters, protected by bombers and fighters that took out Venezuela's defence systems, arrived at Mr Maduro's compound just after 2am, Caracas time, he said.
"On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire and they replied … with overwhelming force and self-defence," he said, adding that one aircraft "was hit but remained flyable".
Mr Maduro and his wife "gave up and were taken into custody", General Caine said.
Mr Trump posted a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, showing multiple explosions in darkness. He also posted a picture of a captured Mr Maduro, which he said was taken on board the US warship USS Iwo Jima.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández confirmed to the Associated Press that Mr Maduro and Ms Flores were captured at their home inside the Fort Tiuna military complex.
"They carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country."
Maduro turned down offers, US says
Mr Trump told Fox News he had spoken to Mr Maduro a week before the operation.
"He wanted to negotiate at the end, and I didn't want to negotiate," he said.
"I said: 'Nope, we gotta do it.'"
Mr Rubio said "many generous offers" had been made to Mr Maduro, which he had rejected.
The US has for months been intensifying pressure on the Maduro regime, bombing alleged drug boats, seizing oil tankers and moving military assets — including the world's largest warship — into the Caribbean.
Court documents released online by US Attorney-General Pam Bondi allege Mr Maduro "sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking".
But some experts argue that Venezuela is not a major contributor to America's drug problems, and the US is likely motivated by other factors. UN data shows most cocaine in the US is produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
Mr Maduro has long accused the Trump administration of working to overthrow him to seize Venezuelan oil.
Some of Mr Trump's critics agree. "This is blood for oil," Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss told CNN.
A group of leading congressional Democrats, including the party's Senate leader Chuck Schumer, issued a statement condemning Mr Trump's plan to "occupy Venezuela". It accused him of lying to Congress and the public "while spending months preparing to capture Maduro".
Mr Trump said the US would now take control of Venezuela's oil business, which had been "a total bust for a very long time".
"They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place," Mr Trump said.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country."
Mr Maduro leads the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which has been the country's ruling party since 2007. He succeeded its founder, Hugo Chávez, after his death in 2013.
Mr Maduro was re-elected in 2018, but the US, Australia and dozens of other countries rejected the result after international watchdogs found the vote was rigged. His election win in 2024 was also widely disputed.
