Venezuela's Maduro due in US court, substitute leader softens stance

REUTERS

New York. Venezuela's deposed leader Nicolas Maduro was due in a New York court on Monday to face drug charges while the U.N. was to scrutinize the legality of U.S. President Donald Trump's extraordinary operation to capture him.

In the biggest U.S. intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, Special Forces swooped into Caracas on helicopters at the weekend to smash through Maduro's security cordon and nab him at the door of a safe room.

Senior officials from his 13-year-old government remain in charge of the South American oil producer of 30 million people, first spitting defiance then pivoting to possible cooperation.

Oil aspirations

Though denouncing Maduro as a dictator and drug kingpin, who flooded the U.S. with cocaine, Trump has made no bones about wanting to share in Venezuela's oil riches.

It has the world's largest reserves - about 303 billion barrels, mostly heavy oil in the Orinoco region. But the sector has long been in decline from mismanagement, under-investment and U.S. sanctions, averaging 1.1 million bpd output last year, a third of its heyday in the 1970s.

A scatter plot showing crude oil reserves on the horizontal axis and crude oil production on the vertical axis for OPEC and non-OPEC countries at the end of 2024.

After first denouncing Maduro's capture as a colonial oil-grab and "kidnapping", Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez changed her tune on Sunday, saying it was a priority to have respectful relations with Washington.

"We invite the U.S. government to work together on an agenda of cooperation," Rodriguez said. "President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war."

The daughter of a leftist guerrilla fighter, 56-year-old Rodriguez has been a fiery-talking member of the ruling "Chavista" movement - named for late leader Hugo Chavez - earning her praise as a "tigress" from Maduro.

But she is also known as a pragmatist with good connections in the private sector and a belief in economic orthodoxy. Many Venezuelans know her for the luxury clothes she likes to wear.

Trump has threatened another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with opening its oil industry and stopping drugs. Trump also threatened Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba's communist government "looks like it's ready to fall".

Just how the U.S. would work with a post-Maduro government, full of sworn ideological enemies, is unclear. He appears to have sidelined for now the Venezuelan opposition, where many anti-Maduro activists had assumed this would be their moment.

Amid global consternation at Trump's seizure of a foreign head of state - albeit an unpopular one - the U.N. Security Council was due to debate its legality and implications.

Russia, China and leftist allies of Venezuela have condemned the U.S. Caracas' staunchest backer Cuba, long rumored to be in charge of Maduro's security, said 32 of its military and intelligence personnel died during the U.S. raid.

Washington's allies, most of whom did not recognize Maduro as president due to vote-rigging allegations, have been more muted, stressing the need for dialogue and adherence to law.

"Judging by the reactions from European leaders to date, I suspect that U.S. allies will equivocate exquisitely in the Security Council," said International Crisis Group analyst Richard Gowan.

Maduro and wife due in Manhattan court

Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver, union leader and foreign minister named by the dying Chavez to replace him in 2013, had been held in jail in Brooklyn, along with his wife Cilia Flores, 69.

Maduro is likely to be in a cell for 23 hours a day at the Metropolitan Detention Center where hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's friend Ghislaine Maxwell both passed through and denounced inhumane conditions.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras convicted of drug trafficking charges before being pardoned in December by Trump, was also housed there.

The Maduros were due in Manhattan federal court at 1200 p.m. EST (1700 GMT).

Maduro and his wife were escorted by armed officers at the detention center in Brooklyn shortly after 7 a.m. local time and led to a helicopter, video from WABC showed.

Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network that partnered with violent groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombian FARC rebels and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang.

Maduro has long denied all the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela's oil.

Trump has also justified Maduro's capture as a response to an influx of Venezuelan immigrants - one in five have left during an economic collapse - and the nationalization of U.S. oil interests decades ago.

"We're taking back what they stole," he said on Sunday, adding that U.S. oil companies will return to Venezuela.

"We're in charge."

Venezuelans nervous about future

Inside Venezuela, Maduro opponents have kept celebrations on hold as his allies remain in power and there is no sign of the military turning against them, even though many suspect some insiders helped in Saturday's operation.

Venezuelans have been stocking up on food and medicines in case of instability, but streets are quieter than normal as everyone wonders what is coming next.

On global markets, Venezuela's default-stricken government bonds surged, oil prices edged up, and stock markets rose in Asia and Europe as investors bought defense stocks after the raid on Venezuela stirred fresh geopolitical concerns.

To the disappointment of Venezuela's opposition and diaspora, Trump has dismissed the idea of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacks support.

Machado was banned from the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez won overwhelmingly and thus has a mandate to rule.

Trump's raid has created a domestic political storm, with opposition Democrats saying they were misled. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due to brief top lawmakers later on Monday.

While a handful of conservative figures have criticized the Venezuela operation as a betrayal of Trump's "America First" pledge to avoid foreign entanglements, most supporters have largely praised it as a swift, painless win.