US capture of Maduro rests on criminal case

WASHINGTON — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife will face criminal charges in the United States after an extraordinary overnight military raid to secure his arrest, the culmination of a lengthy U.S. pressure campaign for regime change in Caracas.

The move to seize the head of a sovereign nation for the U.S. justice system largely received backing from Republican lawmakers.

But it also raised questions from members of Congress about the Trump administration’s authority to do so and potential repercussions abroad — not to mention the duration of the U.S. presence in Venezuela, after President Donald Trump’s assertion that the U.S. will “run” that country for an indefinite period.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said his War Powers Resolution to prevent U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities within or against Venezuela” without a declaration of war or specific authorization from Congress would come up for a vote in that chamber next week.

“It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade,” Kaine said in a statement. His resolution has only one GOP co-sponsor, however — Rand Paul of Kentucky — and critiques from that side of the aisle were few and far between on Saturday.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, initially raised questions about the legality of the operation. But he later posted on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him he “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”

However, in a press conference Saturday Trump did not rule out the continued presence of “boots on the ground” in Venezuela.

“We are going to run the country for some time” until a new government is established, Trump said.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Trump said Saturday the two were being brought to New York to face charges.

Court records were not available Saturday morning, but Bondi pointed to an indictment on the Justice Department website that said Maduro was “at the forefront” of the corruption of once-legitimate Venezuelan institutions in order “to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

The federal grand jury indictment accuses Maduro and co-conspirators of partnering with prolific and violent drug traffickers and narco-terrorists to distribute tons of cocaine to the U.S.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote on social media.

She added Maduro faces a range of charges, including “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy” and “Cocaine Importation Conspiracy” as well as “Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices” with intent to possibly use them against the U.S.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., seized on the gun-related charges in questioning the authority of the Trump administration to take such an action.

“If this action were constitutionally sound, the Attorney General wouldn’t be tweeting that they’ve arrested the President of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law,” Massie wrote on social media.

Another frequent GOP critic of this administration, Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, applauded the removal of Maduro, arguing the operation was “great” for the future of that country. However, Bacon raised concerns about possible actions by Russia in Ukraine and China in Taiwan using Trump’s Venezuela move as justification.

“Freedom and rule of law were defended last night, but dictators will try to exploit this to rationalize their selfish objectives,” Bacon said.

‘Properly indicted’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., in a statement Saturday, said he spoke to Rubio and that the U.S. government had apprehended Maduro “through the execution of a valid Department of Justice warrant.”

Thune called it “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 looks forward to additional briefings from the administration on the overnight operation “as part of its comprehensive counternarcotics strategy when the Senate returns to Washington next week.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a post on social media, said Maduro was responsible for the death of Americans “after years of trafficking illegal drugs and violent cartel members into our country.”

Maduro had been “properly indicted in U.S. courts” for those crimes “and an arrest warrant duly issued,” Johnson said.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, commended Trump for the operation and said the committee will convene a briefing as soon as possible “to hear testimony from senior military and law enforcement leaders about this operation.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters in December he supports regime change in Venezuela and he cited the Noriega campaign as a positive example.

In December 1989, the U.S. sent military troops into Panama to arrest its de facto ruler, Gen. Manuel Noriega. The operation ended in January 1990 after Noriega surrendered to face drug and racketeering charges.

“Nobody asked Congress in 1989. You don’t need to ask. I support it. I think the American public would love to get rid of Maduro, if they understood who he was,” Graham said in a brief interview on Dec. 16.

Congress ‘bypassed’

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, in a statement said she would “demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort.”

Wasserman Schultz called the capture of Maduro “welcome news” but said that “cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows.”

“The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime,” her statement said.

The operation to seize Maduro comes four months after the U.S. military military began a series of strikes on alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The estimated 35 strikes to date, which have resulted in 115 known deaths and two suspects extradited to other countries, have been criticized as illegal by many experts.

Last month, Trump officially pardoned former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a decades-long prison sentence for cocaine importation and other offenses, according to the DOJ.

U.S. authorities said Hernández abused his positions and authority to facilitate the importing of more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. The department has said he was “at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Trump, in a post announcing his intention to pardon Hernández, said that the former Honduran president had been “treated very harshly and unfairly.”