The Trump administration went into full-on Mission Impossible mode early Saturday morning, authorizing a raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, carried out the operation to capture Maduro and his wife. Nicolás Maduro faces federal charges related to drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations.
The operation received praise from Trump’s supporters and was denounced by his detractors.
“With the decision to capture Nicholas Maduro, a narco terrorist, responsible for the death of thousands of Americans, President Trump has changed the course of history and made America safer,” Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) said. “For years, the deadly flow of drugs into our country has been allowed unimpeded. In one year, President Trump has done more to stop it by declaring the cartels narco terrorists and striking ships transporting these deadly drugs into the US, culminating in today’s arrest of Maduro for prosecution.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Pat Ryan (D, NY-18) responded to the president’s actions. “It’s now crystal clear that Trump’s illegal war in Venezuela, launched without any input from Congress, is about two things: oil and regime change. That doesn’t make us safer or stronger. The last thing the American people want is another forever war, which will cost US blood & treasure, just so Trump’s big oil cronies can get richer. I ran for Congress to make sure we learned the lessons of Iraq. Trump is repeating them. It is time to reassert the voice of the American people.”
Maduro and his wife arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in the Town of Newburgh on Saturday afternoon, hours after their capture during the raid in Caracas. They were transported to the USS Iwo Jima warship before being flown to New York to face criminal charges and could be arraigned as early as Monday.
Governor Kathy Hochul called the operation “a flagrant abuse of power.” Hochul’s opponent in November’s election, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, fired back at her, calling her remarks “a stunning defense of a narco-regime whose criminal enterprise has devastated New York families.”
“Let’s be absolutely clear,” said Blakeman, a Trump ally. “Today’s mission was aimed at toppling Nicolás Maduro, a man U.S. authorities have accused of running a drug-trafficking regime that has flooded American cities — including New York — with lethal narcotics. Those drugs are killing our children and tearing families apart, and Kathy Hochul is more outraged by action against Maduro than by the carnage on our streets.”
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called Maduro “a thuggish dictator who abused his power, his people, and refused to accept the results of elections. No one disputes that he should be held accountable for his crimes.
However, Gillibrand labeled the raid “a flagrant breach of trust.”
“After repeatedly telling me and my colleagues that it was not seeking to do so, the administration must also explain why they would carry out this military operation to perform regime change without authorization by Congress and how the United States is going to ‘run’ Venezuela indefinitely without putting our service members in harm’s way,” Gillibrand said. “I remain concerned that the administration’s actions are not the end of something, but the beginning of chaos and instability in the region that threatens our service members, our allies, and American security.”
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