Maduro en prison aux Etats-Unis, qui veulent "diriger" la transition au Venezuela
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet Monday morning at Venezuela's request, two days after the US military operation in Caracas that ousted the authoritarian socialist president. This raid has left the Latin American country without a government, and its legality has been questioned by numerous capitals.
Nicolas Maduro is due to appear before a New York judge at an undetermined date, to answer charges including "narco-terrorism" and importation of cocaine into the United States.
Mr. Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, were captured overnight Friday to Saturday by US forces after strikes on Caracas and its surroundings, and months of US military pressure in the Caribbean Sea.
AFP footage late Saturday showed the Venezuelan leader exiting a plane under escort at an airport north of New York, then arriving in Manhattan by helicopter.
The White House later released a video of Mr. Maduro, handcuffed and wearing sandals, being escorted by agents to the offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the federal anti-drug agency. He was then taken to a federal jail in the Brooklyn borough.
Despite the success of the American military raid -- a risky gamble for Donald Trump who followed the operation live "like a TV show" -- the immediate future of the country of 30 million inhabitants remains uncertain.
"We will lead the country until we can have a safe, proper and sensible transition," Donald Trump said at a press conference in Florida, without specifying how the United States would proceed.
And in the streets of Caracas, no sign of an American military presence was visible, AFP observed.
Mr. Trump said he would allow American oil companies to go to Venezuela to exploit the country's crude reserves, adding that the United States was prepared to launch "a second, larger attack" if necessary.
Venezuela holds 17% of the world's crude oil reserves and sells 80% of its low-quality oil to China.
The US Chief of Staff, General Dan Caine, gave some details on the military operation "Absolute Resolve", carried out after "months of preparation".
It mobilized more than 150 aircraft and the Maduro couple surrendered "without resistance," he specified.
The United States has stated that no Americans were killed during the operation, the human toll of which on the Venezuelan side remains unknown.
Donald Trump told the New York Post that "many Cubans (had) lost their lives" because "they were protecting Maduro".
According to US media, Mr. Maduro relied on advisors sent by the communist government in Havana, a close ally of Caracas.
During a press conference, Donald Trump asserted that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez had told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that she was ready to cooperate with the United States.
Venezuela's Supreme Court has entrusted the interim presidency to Ms. Rodriguez after finding that "the constitutional president was abducted" during a "foreign military aggression".
But the court did not declare Mr. Maduro permanently incapacitated, which would have triggered an early presidential election within 30 days. Nicolas Maduro is "the sole president of the country," Ms. Rodriguez had previously stated, demanding his "immediate release."
Without specifying how Washington envisioned the next steps, Donald Trump disqualified the leader of the opposition and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Maria Corina Machado.
"She receives neither support nor respect in her country," he declared.
"The time for freedom has arrived," the opposition leader reacted after the announcement of Mr. Maduro's capture, believing that the opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, exiled in Spain, should "immediately assume" the presidency.
The US military operation was strongly condemned by Caracas' allies—China, Russia, Iran, and Colombia—and criticism also poured in from the UN, the EU, and various Latin American and European capitals against the use of force against a sovereign state and "a violation of international law." Only a few pro-Trump governments, such as Argentina and Israel, applauded.
In Caracas, the streets were practically deserted on Saturday, and the metal shutters of shops remained down for fear of riots and looting.
Some 500 supporters of Mr. Maduro gathered not far from the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, in Caracas.
"How is it that a foreign government comes to interfere in the country and expels the president? (...) It's the power of the neighborhood kingpin," lamented Katia Briceño, a 54-year-old university professor.
Conversely, thousands of exiled Venezuelans, out of the eight million who have fled their country gripped by an endless political and economic crisis, gathered in several cities around the world to celebrate the fall of Nicolas Maduro.
"Finally we will have a free country. Finally we will be able to go home," Yurimar Rojas, a street vendor in Santiago, Chile, told AFP.
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