Legality of Venezuela raid questioned

THE seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a daring raid by US forces throws open questions about the operation's legality, according to experts and top Democrats who say laws were broken in the process.

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OPPONENTS of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrate in Doral, Florida. | AFP

(AFP)

US President Donald Trump's administration has defended the action, saying it was carrying out a law enforcement operation when American special forces swooped into Caracas in the dead of night and forcibly took Maduro and his wife out of the country at the weekend.

The couple were flown to New York to face "narcoterrorism" charges in a federal court over alleged ties to trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has accused the Republican president's administration of breaking the law.

"They went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places. And it's a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorisation of Congress," he said on ABC News show This Week.

At a post-raid press conference at the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the operation as "largely a law enforcement function".