U.S. forces seize Venezuelan leader

Trump says Washington will 'run' the oil-rich nation after stunning attack and capture

- BY KEVIN RECTOR

JIM WATSON AFP/Getty Images

"IF YOU would've seen the speed, the violence," said President Trump, pictured with top aides. "Amazing job."

Move is broadly criticized as illegal

President Trump's decision to send U.S. forces into Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and return them to the U.S. to face drug charges elicited condemnation from legal experts and other critics who argued that the operation — conducted without congressional or United Nations approval — clearly violated U.S. and international law.

Such criticism came from Democratic leaders, international allies and adversaries including Mexico, France, China and Russia, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and experts on international law and wartime powers.

"Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and foreing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn't just continue Donald Trump's trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation," Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on X.

A U.N. spokesman said Guterres was “deeply alarmed” by the U.S. operation and “deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.”

China’s foreign ministry said “such hegemonic acts of the U.S. seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty,” and France’s foreign minister said the U.S. operation “contravenes the principle of the non-use of force that underpins international law.”