Maduro Held in Jail as US Plans Rule

January 4, 2026

This screengrab taken from the X account of Rapid Response 47, the official White House rapid response account, shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) escorted by DEA agents inside the headquarters of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in lower Manhattan, New York, on January 3, 2026. President Donald Trump said January 3 that the United States will "run" Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves after seizing leftist leader Nicolas Maduro during a bombing raid on Caracas. Trump's announcement came hours after a lightning pre-dawn attack in which special forces grabbed Maduro and his wife -- while air strikes pounded sites in and around the capital city -- then whisked him out of the country. (Photo by X account of Rapid Response 47 / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / X ACCOUNT OF RAPID RESPONSE 47" - HANDOUT - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was being held in a New York jail on Saturday after U.S. special forces captured him in Venezuela and flew him to the United States.

The operation took place before dawn. U.S. aircraft struck military targets in and around Caracas while American troops moved in and detained Maduro and his wife. Officials said they did not resist.

A U.S. government plane transported Maduro out of Venezuela hours later. After landing at a military base, he was flown by helicopter to New York, where he is being held ahead of court proceedings on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The White House released a video showing Maduro in handcuffs as federal agents escorted him through a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration building in New York.

He was wearing sandals and appeared calm. In the video, he says in English, “Good night, happy new year.”

President Donald Trump said that the US is “going to run” Venezuela indefinitely. He said he was “designating people” from his cabinet to be in charge in Venezuela but gave no further details.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Maduro Held in Jail as US Plans Rule — Armed police officers stand in front of the Metropolitan Detention facility in the Brooklyn borough of New York, where ousted president Nicolas Maduro is expected to be held, on January 3, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski / AFP)

He said Washington did not want to allow a change in leadership that could lead back to instability. “We don’t want to be involved with having someone else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country.”

Trump said he decided the United States should step in to ensure that Venezuela’s next leader acts in the interests of its people. He did not give a timeline for how long U.S. control would last.

“We’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,” he said.

Trump also said he planned to authorise U.S. oil companies to take over Venezuela’s energy infrastructure, stating that the corporations would “spend billions of dollars” on the project.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies… go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,” he said.

“We’ll be selling large amounts of oil.”