Ousted Venezuelan President Maduro arraigned in U.S. court today; Trump threatens other nations – CBS News

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the United Nations on Monday that “we are not occupying a country,” reiterating Rubio’s comments over the weekend that “there is no war against Venezuela or its people.”

“This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades,” Waltz said, according to the readout. “The United States arrested a narcotrafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years.”

Waltz compared the operation to the 1989 action against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

“This law enforcement action was directed consistent with the President of the United States’ responsibility as Commander in Chief to protect Americans at home and abroad, against a fugitive who is directly responsible for narco-terrorism that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and created destabilizing violence throughout our hemisphere,” Waltz said.  

Maduro said in federal court Monday in lower Manhattan “I’m not guilty.”

“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty — I’m a decent man,” Maduro said through an interpreter, adding that he is “still president of my country.”

His wife also pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking and weapons charges before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

The two were transported under heavy security via helicopter from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to a Manhattan heliport and taken by motorcade to the courthouse hours before the proceedings.

Read more here.

Maduro entered the courtroom shortly after 12 p.m. ET wearing prison garb, headphones for translations and feet shackled. His wife had the same clothes on. Both their hands were unshackled.

Maduro shook hands with his attorney.  

Maduro will be represented by Barry Pollack, a seasoned trial lawyer who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a former in-house accountant for Enron, according to a court filing.

Pollack works for the firm Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP. He helped broker the plea deal that saw Assange plead guilty in 2024 to a single felony count for publishing U.S. military secrets.  

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday that he remains “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected” in regard to the U.S. military operation in Venezuela.

In a statement read before the UN Security Council, he also touched on potential consequences of the operation for Venezuelans.

“I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted,” Guterres said. 

He added: “I welcome and am ready to support all efforts aimed at assisting Venezuelans in finding a peaceful way forward.”

CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger said on “CBS Mornings” that in the short term, the operation in Venezuela will not impact American gas prices.

“Longer term, maybe,” she said. “Maybe there will be more gas on the market, but there are so many factors at play. It’s not as easy as we extract this person and all of a sudden our prices at the pumps go down.”

Venezuela is estimated to have 303 billion barrels of crude oil still in the ground, which is approximately 20% of the world’s reserves.

Schlesinger said that while Venezuela has a large reserve, “about three-quarters of that is very hard to extract from the ground and actually refine.”

“So when we say it is big, it is big over the long term if there is an investment,” she said. 

Twenty-five years ago, Venezuela produced 3 million barrels per day. Now it only produces 1 million barrels a day.

Schlesinger explained that Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company in Venezuela currently, saying: “Let’s say we want to get other companies involved, that would require billions of dollars of infrastructure investment. Here is the big question: will these companies want to do that if this is a much longer-term play? It’s not going to be an immediate turn around and that’s what we don’t know.”

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s former vice president, was sworn in Monday as the new interim president while Maduro awaited arraignment in New York. 

Rodríguez, 56, is a powerful figure and longtime confidant of Maduro, and she has been backed thus far by Venezuela’s military commanders. She served as Venezuela’s vice president from 2018 until Sunday. Her brother Jorge Rodríguez also holds a senior role in the country, as president of the National Assembly, Venezuela’s legislature, which has long been controlled by the Maduro regime.

Rodríguez quickly denounced the U.S. operation as a violation of the United Nations’ founding charter and a unilateral attempt to force regime change on Saturday, but soon adopted a more conciliatory tone.

Read more here about the longtime member of Maduro’s inner circle, and her chances of retaining any power as the Trump administration determines its next moves in Venezuela.

Mark Donnelly, a lawyer based in Houston, will represent Flores, according to a court filing.

Donnelly, who works for the firm Parker Sanchez and Donnelly, is licensed to practice in Texas. He worked for 12 years at the Justice Department, including as senior adviser to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas and as head of the office’s fraud division, according to a biography from his firm.

Donnelly also was a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for eight years.

Protesters have started to gather across from the courthouse in lower Manhattan where Maduro and his wife will be arraigned at noon. There is loud chanting, flags and people banging on cans. Some people have called out “Maduro!” A number of signs read: “Free Pres. Maduro and Cilia Flores Now!”, “No War for Venezuelan Oil” and “U.S.A. Hands off Venezuela.”

There is also a very small contingent of counter-protesters. One is waving a Trump flag on one side and a Venezuelan flag on the other. Police have created a barricade separating them from the pro-Maduro protest.

Security is high and there is a wide perimeter around the courthouse.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that the Americas “do not belong” to any power and rejected U.S. intervention in other countries.

“We categorically reject intervention in the internal matters of other countries,” Sheinbaum said, according to Reuters.

President Trump had described the U.S. operation against Nicolas Maduro as an update of the Monroe Doctrine: the 1823 declaration by fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, that Latin America was closed to other powers, which at the time meant Europe.

Sheinbaum hit back on Monday, saying: “The Americas do not belong to any doctrine or any power. The American continent belongs to the peoples of each of the countries that comprise it.”

She also said, “It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico the people rule, and that we are a free and sovereign country-cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no.”

—CBS/AFP 

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Venezuela, says Venezuelans thank President Trump and that “the freedom of Venezuela is near.”

“The brave people of Venezuela took to the streets in 30 countries and 130 cities around the world to celebrate a huge step that marks the inevitability and imminence of the transition in Venezuela,” she said in a statement on social media Monday.

“We Venezuelans thank President Donald Trump (@POTUS) and his administration for their firmness and determination in upholding the law,” she said. “Venezuela will be the main ally of the United States in matters of security, energy, democracy, and human rights.”

“The freedom of Venezuela is near, and soon we will celebrate on our land,” she said. “We will shout, pray, and embrace as a family, because our children will return home.”

AI-generated images, old videos and altered photos proliferated on social media in the hours following Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Several of the images quickly went viral, fueling false information online. 

CBS News analyzed circulating images by comparing dubious images to verified content and using publicly available tools such as reverse image search. In some cases, CBS News ran images through AI detection tools, which can be inconsistent or inaccurate but can still help flag possibly manipulated content.

One photo purporting to show Maduro after his capture was shared widely, including by the mayor of Coral Gables Florida, Vince Lago, and in a joint Instagram post by two popular conservative content accounts with over 6 million combined followers. Using Google’s SynthID tool, CBS News Confirmed team found the photo was likely edited or generated using Google AI. 

Read more here.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Monday he would “take up arms,” after threats from President Trump.

“I swore never to touch a weapon again since the peace pact of 1989 but for the homeland I would take up arms that I don’t want,” Petro said on X.

Mr. Trump mentioned Petro on Sunday, saying Colombia is “very sick too, run by a very sick man.”

The president said he felt Petro is “not going to be doing it for very long,” and when asked if he would carry out a military operation there, responded, “Sounds good to me.”

The response to the operation in Venezuela has been mixed, with some Venezuelans celebrating the removal of Nicolás Maduro and others accusing the U.S. of trying to steal the country’s oil.

Amid the uncertainty of what will happen next, Venezuelan residents rushed to grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations to stock up, CBS News’ Lilia Luciano reported from the country’s border with Colombia. 

Nailin Pena – who is among the millions of Venezuelans who fled the Maduro regime, and is now in Colombia – told CBS News she hopes to return, but is skeptical of interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez and doesn’t believe things will change. 

Meanwhile, supporters of Maduro protested in the streets of Venezuela, saying, “Our president is Nicolás Maduro.”

Sen. Tim Kaine said on “CBS Mornings” Monday that the administration needs to “explain why this is legal” as officials are set to brief top lawmakers on the Venezuela operation later Monday.

“I believe it’s an illegal action because we’re not supposed to be at war without a vote of Congress.,” Kaine said. “They need to explain what the purpose is… And they need to explain to the American public why this is a smart thing to do.”

The Virginia Democrat said “there’s a tall order, many questions that the administration needs to answer, and thus far they’ve not even been willing to do it in a single public hearing.”

Kaine said there are “two levers that we intend to use” in Congress, pointing to a war powers resolution that he said will come up for a vote this week in the Senate. He outlined that the second lever would come through the Defense Department funding bill.

“So you’ll likely see both power of the purse, but also just a straight-out war powers resolution to say, ‘no military action without a vote of Congress,’ which is what the Constitution requires,” Kaine said. 

Kaine said, though the president could veto a war powers resolution should it reach his desk, “we think a strong congressional vote, even if President Trump chooses to veto it, will send him a message that may cause him to rethink the foolishness that he’s engaged upon.”

Retired general H.R. McMaster, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser during his first term and is now a CBS News contributor, said he hopes “that we see more clarity” on the administration’s goals in Venezuela.

“I think what the administration is trying to do now is to use coercive diplomacy to do something short of an invasion to get the political outcome they want,” McMaster said Monday on “CBS Mornings.”

McMaster said he isn’t concerned about Mr. Trump “putting boots on the ground” in Venezuela, which the president has said he’s not afraid to do. McMaster noted “it would take a significant commitment from our nation” to do so.

He also said, “I wish they would talk more about the restoration of sovereignty in the Venezuelan people.”

“There is a military dimension of this, there’s an economic dimension to this but there’s also a moral dimension to this,” he said. “And what we should make clear is that what we want to see in Venezuela is a restoration of the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.” 

Watch the full interview here.

Maduro and his wife were transported via helicopter from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the Wall Street heliport this morning, and then were taken by motorcade to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan where they are due to be arraigned at noon.

There is high security at the courthouse. Barricades line the street, and a long line has already formed of people waiting to get inside.

Maduro faces narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons charges. He could face up to life in prison.

A war powers vote is on the horizon as lawmakers return to Washington this week.

Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela, and the Trump administration did not notify lawmakers of the plan ahead of time. 

Most Democrats and a few Republicans have sought to limit Mr. Trump’s authority to strike Venezuela and suspected drug-trafficking boats in the region. But the Senate and House have each failed twice to limit Mr. Trump’s authority to continue the military campaign. Mr. Trump has called the South American country’s role in drug smuggling a threat to national security. 

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said the Senate will vote this week on his latest war powers resolution. He introduced the measure in early December, days after the revelation that the U.S. killed two people who survived the initial blast of a Sept. 2 strike in the Caribbean Sea. 

Kaine’s measure would require “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.” 

Read more here.

The Swiss government said Monday it has decided to freeze any assets held in Switzerland by Nicolas Maduro or his associates “with immediate effect” — a decision reached after Maduro was seized in Caracas and brought to New York to face narcotrafficking charges.

Describing the situation as “volatile,” the Swiss government said in a statement it wanted “to ensure that any illicitly acquired assets cannot be transferred out of Switzerland in the current situation.”

It also said, “should future legal proceedings reveal that the funds were illicitly acquired, Switzerland will endeavour to ensure that they benefit the Venezuelan people.”

The move, decided under Switzerland’s Federal Act on the Freezing and the Restitution of Illicit Assets Held by Foreign Politically Exposed Persons, comes in addition to existing sanctions on Venezuela in force since 2018, which also include asset freezes, the government said. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from what prosecutors said was his role in a scheme to import “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States and enrich himself, his family and senior members of the Venezuelan government.

The indictment was unsealed Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into military custody in an overnight operation and brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges. 

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

Maduro, Flores and four others are named as defendants in the indictment, including Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro.

Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machineguns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices.

Flores is accused of brokering a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office and allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

Read more here.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, President Trump said he has not spoken directly with Venezuela’s acting leader, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, but said she was cooperating with the U.S.

“We’re in charge” of Venezuela right now, Mr. Trump said, 

He said the U.S. had been prepared for further military action in Venezuela but it hadn’t been needed so far, adding that this could change “if they don’t behave.”

The president said he’s spoken with several U.S. oil companies about commitments to rebuilding Venezuela’s infrastructure, saying they “wanna go in so bad.” 

Following the action in Venezuela, the Trump administration is alluding to possible action elsewhere in the region.

In remarks aboard Air Force One Sunday night, Mr. Trump mentioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, saying Colombia is “very sick too, run by a very sick man.”

Mr. Trump said he felt Petro is “not going to be doing it for very long,” and when asked if he would carry out a military operation there as well, the president responded, “Sounds good to me.”

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government, a longtime U.S. adversary and one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners. Rubio, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said he thinks “they’re in a lot of trouble.”

“I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard,” Rubio said. “But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”

He said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards,” adding that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government.

The Cuban government said Sunday that 32 Cubans were killed during the U.S. military operation to capture Maduro.

Mr. Trump said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It’s going down,” Mr. Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

-CBS/AP

“That’s enough now,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said on social media late Sunday after repeated threats from President Trump to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

“No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law,” Nielsen wrote.

Since returning to White House a year ago, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that making Greenland part of the United States would serve U.S. national security interests, given its strategic location in the Arctic. Greenland is also rich in key critical minerals used in high-tech sectors.

In an interview with The Atlantic magazine published Sunday, Mr. Trump reiterated his wish to take over Greenland. “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense,” he told the magazine.

Sunday night aboard Air Force One, he told reporters, “It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” 

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said.

-CBS/AFP

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is serving as acting leader following President Nicolás Maduro’s capture, said in a statement Sunday night that Venezuela seeks “peace and peaceful coexistence.”

“Our country aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international cooperation,” Rodriguez said. “We believe that global peace is built by guaranteeing the peace of each nation first.”

Rogriguez said she hopes to have a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the U.S. “based on sovereign equality and non-interference.”

“We extend the invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperation agenda, oriented to shared development, within the framework of international legality and strengthen a lasting community coexistence,” she added.

“President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.”

Trump administration officials will give some members of Congress a classified briefing on Venezuela at 5:30 p.m. Monday, according to multiple sources. 

Those invited include chairs and ranking members from the Senate Foreign Relations, Senate Armed Services, House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services committees, as well as the so-called Gang of Eight — the chair and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the four leaders of the House and Senate. 

The briefing is set to be delivered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, according to an administration official. 

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being held in different sections of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal facility with the capacity for holding high-security defendants. 

MDC is known for having housed other high-profile defendants including Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that Maduro is being held on one of the top floors of MDC. They say he is not being held in isolation, but is being held with other higher profile inmates.

His status likely means protection from the general population, said Marc Fernich, an attorney who represented notorious drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was held at a federal jail a few miles away in Manhattan. 

“If Maduro is placed in round-the-clock solitary, it will be for his own protection or to guard against suicide,” Fernich said.

He added that the Brooklyn jail currently houses many members of Venezuela’s most well-known transnational gang, Tren de Aragua.

There are at least four detained Americans being held in Venezuela, according to a hostage advocate familiar with the situation. The U.S. government is aware that some Americans who had been detained in Venezuela prior to the holidays remain in custody there.

Asked on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” about reports of previously detained Americans still being held in Venezuela, Sen. Chris Van Hollen said, “I’ve not gotten an update from the administration on those detained Americans. But certainly, my view is we should work to bring back every American who is wrongfully detained overseas.”

He added: “My view is that the administration should designate as wrongfully detained any Americans that the Venezuelan Government has seized wrongfully.”

President Trump on Saturday called Maduro an “illegitimate dictator” and alleged he “was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States.” 

In a U.S. military operation that struck Venezuelan military facilities in the early hours of Saturday, Maduro and his wife were captured and flown to the U.S. to face charges. 

Mr. Trump said, “Now, Maduro will never again be able to threaten an American citizen or anybody from Venezuela.”

“The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone in Venezuela,” the president said. “People are free.”