President Donald Trump said Tuesday on his social media site that "Interim Authorities" in Venezuela would be selling 30 million to 50 million barrels of "High Quality" oil to the US at its market price.

Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez on Tuesday announced a week of mourning for people killed in the US assault that ousted Nicolas Maduro as its president.

"I have decided to decree seven days of mourning to the honor and glory of the young people, women and men who gave up their lives defending Venezuela and president Nicolas Maduro," she said on state television.
Cuba and Venezuela said 55 of their military personnel were killed, while Venezuela's attorney general spoke of "dozens" of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.

Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez insisted Tuesday no foreign power was governing her country, after US President Donald Trump said Washington would "run" it pending a transition after ousting her predecessor.

"The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no one else. There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela," Rodriguez said in a televised address.

US refineries on the Gulf Coast can process Venezuela's crude and have imported it in the past, before the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela.

Fifty-five Cuban and Venezuelan military personnel were killed during the US raid to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, according to tolls published Tuesday by the two Latin American allies.

When a night-time US special forces operation led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, many believed the moment had finally arrived for the country's long-time opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado.

Those hopes fizzled quickly.

Shortly after the operation, US President Donald Trump made it clear that he would not back Machado, even with Maduro removed from power.

"I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within, or the respect within, the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect," Trump said.

Donald Trump has described US operation in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, as “amazing” and “brilliant”.

“It was amazing. And think of it, nobody was killed. And on the other side, a lot of people were killed. They were they knew we were coming, and they were protected, and our guys weren’t. You know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters … it was so brilliant,” he added.

“He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people,” Trump said.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado's movement has demanded for the release of all political prisoners in a post on X.

"Those who unjustly hold the civilian and military political prisoners should free them immediately," the statement said.

Machado has reposted the statement on X.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has challenged US President Donald Trump in the aftermath of a United States operation in Venezuela. Petro slammed the operation on Monday and, in a statement to Trump, said, "Come get me. I'm waiting for you here."

"If they [the US] bombs, the campesinos will become thousands of guerrillas in the mountains. And if they detain the president which a large part of the country loves and respects, they will unleash the 'jaguar' of the people," he warned.

Petro, who was a leftist guerrilla before demobilising in the 1990s, also said, "I swore not to touch a weapon again ... but for the homeland I will take up arms again."

Days after the US forces captured Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she wanted to share her Nobel Peace Prize with American President Donald Trump. She had expressed a similar wish in October 2025 when she received the honour.

When US forces took Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela on Saturday, Aguadilla and several other Puerto Rican bases were already home to aircraft and personnel involved in the operation.

The island, roughly 800 km from Venezuela, was a hub for American military hardware in the region. Former bases such as the airport in Aguadilla and the naval station at Roosevelt Roads, which closed in 2004, have been revitalised to support US operations.

Fighter jets, drones, and other military equipment had reportedly been deployed to Puerto Rico as pressure on Maduro intensified. The former Air Force base at Aguadilla was reportedly Maduro's first stop on American soil after his capture, as per Politico.

Delcy Rodriguez stepped in and was sworn in as the Venezuelan President on Monday. Rodriguez faces the twin challenge of claiming control at home and negotiating terms with US President Donald Trump.

She inherits the leadership of a Bolivarian revolution built on a core belief of opposition to American imperialism. At the same time, US warships remain stationed in the Caribbean, and the Trump administration has made clear it is prepared to use force to bend her to its will.

Trump warned that Rodriguez could "pay a very big price, probably bigger than" Maduro's if she refused to cooperate. This threat stood in sharp contrast to Trump's earlier comments suggesting she would act as a partner in allowing the United States to manage Venezuela.

Within hours of those remarks, Rodriguez called the capture of Maduro a "barbarity."

An oil minister herself, Rodriguez has long been the go-to contact for senior executives, whom she impressed by navigating Venezuela's industry through international sanctions, economic pressures and internal mismanagement. Her loyalty to the Maduro regime notwithstanding, she'd be best positioned to shepherd through the US plan to restore Venezuela to its glory days as an oil gusher, argued executives and lobbyists.

A sketch of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their first appearance in an American court was released on Monday.

Dressed in blue and orange jail-issued shirts and khaki pants, the sketch shows Maduro and Flores standing before a Manhattan judge during the proceedings. Flores had two large band-aids on her face.

They were both seen wearing headphones to listen to a translated version of the proceedings in Spanish. The court conducted the hearing in English.

Clips showing Maduro's movement through New York ahead of his first court appearance have been making the rounds on the internet.

In the footage, Maduro appears to be limping. He was dressed in beige trousers, a khaki jacket and bright orange shoes, and was surrounded by heavily armed law enforcement officers.

Another video shows him climbing into a helicopter. He was transported to the courthouse in an armoured vehicle following the flight.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Monday that "a free Venezuela," with its largest oil reserves in the world, will become the "energy hub" of North and South America. 

"We will turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas," Machado told broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Monday she plans to return home "as soon as possible," and slammed the interim leader in Caracas. 

"I'm planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible," Machado told broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News from an undisclosed location, adding that she thinks interim president Delcy Rodriguez "is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking."

President Donald Trump does not plan to occupy or nation-build in Venezuela, Republican U.S. lawmakers said on Monday after attending a briefing by top officials on the administration's policy toward the South American nation.

"We do not have US armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country," Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana told reporters after the classified session with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior officials.

"If anybody wants to use the term nation-building, or anything like that, it doesn't look like anything anybody has seen under President Trump," said Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that Venezuela should hold elections soon, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called voting premature following the toppling of president Nicolas Maduro.

Speaking to reporters after a briefing to lawmakers from Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Johnson added he did not expect the United States to send troops to Venezuela, a possibility that President Donald Trump refused to rule out publicly.

"I expect that there will be an election called in Venezuela," said Johnson, the top member of Trump's Republican Party in Congress.

"Some of these things are still being determined, of course, but it should happen in short order. And I think it will need to be, so that their economy can remain stabilized and the country can remain stabilized," he said.

(AFP)

President Donald Trump said the US is not at war with Venezuela and will not push for elections anytime soon, arguing that the country must first be stabilised and its infrastructure rebuilt following the capture of its President, Nicolas Maduro.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Trump said Venezuela would not hold elections in the next 30 days, saying conditions on the ground made voting unrealistic. "We have to fix the country first," Trump said. "You can't have an election if people can't even vote."

Trump said Washington's focus is on restoring basic order and rebuilding the economy. "We have to nurse the country back to health," he said, indicating that the transition would take time.

Cubans weary from years of economic crisis, shortages of basic supplies and regular power blackouts, fear the US attack on Venezuela, a leftist ideological ally and its main oil supplier, will see life get even tougher.

After American forces seized Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro in an early-morning raid, US President Donald Trump over the weekend issued threats to other leftist leaders in the region and said he thought Cuba was "ready to fall."

He played down the need for US military action on the island, saying it would be hard for Havana to "hold out" without Venezuelan oil, and "it looks like it's going down."

"2026 is going to be tough, very tough," Axel Alfonso, a 53-year-old working as a driver for a state enterprise, told AFP in the capital Havana on Monday.

"If Venezuela is the main supplier, at least of oil, it's going to get a bit complicated," said Alfonso who, like the vast majority of Cubans, has lived his whole life under a bruising US trade embargo in place since 1962.

The communist-run island has seen 13 US administrations come and go, some more punishing than others.

"We've been fighting for 60 years, and we have to keep going," Alfonso said.

(AFP)

Real change has not come to Venezuela despite Nicolas Maduro's ouster as president and the armed forces remain loyal to the regime: that was the blunt assessment Monday of former security operatives living in exile.

If things are to really change, first "a new high command is needed" in the country's powerful security services, Williams Cancino told AFP on Monday.

"The top brass are totally loyal to the regime," said Cancino, who until his defection in 2019 was an officer in Venezuela's police and the Special Action Forces, which are often used to crack down on dissent.

Through flawed elections and mass protests, they helped Maduro's government to survive.

When contacted by AFP, several Venezuelan former soldiers and police officers -- branded as traitors by their government -- shared the view that many of the same people still control Venezuela, despite a dramatic change at the top.

(AFP)

Shots were fired late Monday near Venezuela's presidential palace, witnesses said, days after US forces captured the now-deposed president Nicolas Maduro in a military raid.

A source close to the government said the situation was under control.

Unidentified drones flew over the Miraflores palace in central Caracas and security forces opened fire in response around 8:00 pm (0000 GMT), the source said, hours after Maduro's deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president following his removal.

In the days since the Venezuela operation, Trump has doubled down on his desire to annex Greenland from Denmark.

"Trump has given us a long list of potential future conquests -- but the most likely target of his administration will be Greenland," Asli Aydintasbas, fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings institution, told AFP.

Trump insists Washington needs the mineral-rich, semi-autonomous territory for national security reasons, arguing Denmark is unable to protect Greenland from Russia and China. 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has responded by warning that any move to take Greenland by force could mean the end of the US-led NATO military alliance itself.

But Washington could instead increase diplomatic pressure on its already nervy European allies, for example by insisting on a referendum in Greenland.

Congressional leaders are expecting to hear more about the U.S. government's plans for the future of Venezuela, as top officials from President Donald Trump's administration head to Capitol Hill to brief select lawmakers Monday evening.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials will discuss Venezuela with House and Senate leadership, as well as top members of the intelligence committees and national security committees.
Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro declared himself "innocent" and a "decent man" as he pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. courtroom on Monday, his first court appearance for what is likely to be a prolonged legal fight.

The Venezuelan government on Monday published a decree declaring a State of External Commotion, granting sweeping powers to the presidency and instructing security forces to detain "any person involved in the promotion or support" of a US attack against the South American country, CNN reported.

The decree, dated Saturday, was signed by then-president Nicolas Maduro, who was captured earlier that day by US military forces and is currently being held in New York.

Venezuela's parliament on Monday forcibly denounced the capture of leftist leader Nicolas Maduro while vowing support for his stand-in, due to be sworn in less than three days after a US military attack that shocked Caracas.
Members of the National Assembly offered their full backing to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez -- who had been Maduro's vice president -- and reelected her brother Jorge Rodriguez as parliament head.
As Monday's session opened, lawmakers chanted "Let's go Nico!" -- a slogan of Maduro's presidential campaign ahead of 2024 elections that were widely denounced by the opposition and dozens of global capitals, including Washington, as fraudulent.

Oil prices finished higher Monday on a heady day for global equities after the US capture of Venezuela's president sparked speculation on the implications for future crude supplies.
The shake-up in Venezuela also sparked a rally in petroleum giant Chevron, which helped lift the blue-chip Dow index to a fresh all-time high after London's FTSE 100 had earlier closed at a record.
Following a more than five percent gain in Chevron, the Dow ended at 48,977.8, up 1.2 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 and Nasdaq also finished solidly higher.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a phone call on Saturday with Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, his office said on Monday, after the United States attacked the South American country and deposed President Nicolas Maduro.

Lula has condemned the U.S. actions as crossing an "unacceptable line."

Venezuela's vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez was formally sworn in on Monday as the country's interim president, as US-deposed President Nicolas Maduro appeared in a New York court on drug charges.

Clips showing President Nicolas Maduro's movement through New York ahead of his first court appearance have been making the rounds on the internet.

"I'm innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country," Maduro told a judge, adding he was kidnapped.

Before deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was brought to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, another Latin American leader had already stood trial in a US court for similar crimes. The outcome, however, was very different.

About a dozen tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude and fuel departed in recent days from the country's waters in dark mode, breaking a strict blockade imposed by the US amid intense pressure that mounted until the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

Europe's silence on the nighttime US military raid in Venezuela's capital Caracas that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro has drawn criticism over applying different yardsticks to controversial acts by nations.

The Swiss government said Monday that it had decided to freeze any assets held in Switzerland by the deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro or his associates "with immediate effect".

Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro arrived at a New York court on Monday, just days after being seized in Caracas in a shock US military operation that paved the path for Washington's plans to dominate the oil-rich country.

Unlike post-Operation Sindoor, when Beijing hailed Pakistan's air-defence operations against India as a success of Islamabad's "Made in China" military force, there is an eerie silence within Beijing this time.

India's former Ambassador to Venezuela, YK Sinha, has likened the reported US assault on Caracas and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro to "a bygone era of gunboat diplomacy".

Venezuela's vast oil reserves, especially in the Orinoco Belt region, are dominated by heavy and extra-heavy crude oil. Much of this oil has very low API gravity, high sulphur content and significant impurities, making it hard to refine without specialised processing or blending with lighter oil.

The Cartel of the Suns (Cartel de los Soles) is a term used to describe corruption and drug trafficking involving members of Venezuela's armed forces, particularly high-ranking generals whose uniforms are marked with sun-shaped insignia (“soles”).

It is not a single cartel but a system in which military and government officials allegedly use their positions to move and protect cocaine shipments for profit.

US authorities say investigations into military drug involvement go back to the early 1990s. Under former President Hugo Chavez and later Nicolas Maduro, the network is said to have expanded to include crimes such as illegal mining, fuel smuggling, and money laundering.

The Cuban government said on Sunday that 32 of its citizens were killed during the US raid on Venezuela to extract President Nicolas Maduro for prosecution in the United States. 

Havana said there would be two days of mourning on January 5 and 6 in honor of those killed and said funeral arrangements would be announced.

The Cuban government statement gave few details, but said all the dead were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies.

"True to their responsibilities concerning security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of bombings on the facilities," the statement said.

Turns out that someone in the prediction market had an inkling that Nicolas Maduro would fall. A new account on the Polymarket placed over $30,000, approximately Rs 27 lakh, on the Venezuelan President's ouster and made a mammoth profit of nearly $400,000, roughly Rs 3.93 crore, Axios reported.

The bet was tied to Maduro's fall or exit by January 31, 2026. The winning account was opened somewhere in December 2025, according to a Facebook post by Stock Sharks.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on major powers to take a lead in "respecting the development path of other nations" in a veiled dig at the United States's sudden power grab in Venezuela and abduction of its president, Nicolas Maduro. China has long been close to Venezuela and is its largest oil buyer.

"The world today is undergoing changes and turbulence not seen in a century, with unilateral and bullying actions severely undermining the international order," Xi said, according to Xinhua.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's ousted President, has an India connection. Long before political crackdowns and global sanctions, Maduro found his spiritual connection in India through his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also captured along with him and flown out of Venezuela after months of stepped-up pressure by the United States.

Both Maduro and Flores were followers of Sathya Sai Baba. Raised Catholic, Maduro was introduced to the Indian spiritual leader through Flores before their marriage. The couple visited Prasanthi Nilayam ashram in the Puttaparthi area of Andhra Pradesh in 2005 to meet Sathya Sai Baba.

The Trump administration has made a remarkable bet early in the new year by capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a military raid in Caracas last week. For a President who had come to office pledging to end “forever wars”, this is a serious turnaround as he is now suggesting that the US is “going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”. Trump's “America First” agenda now includes rebuilding a South American nation whose economy is in shambles and whose political institutions have been eroded by the vagaries of dictatorship over decades.

China has voiced strong opposition to the United States' forcible control of deposed dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, warning against unilateral bullying and asserting that no nation has the authority to act as the world's "policeman" or an "international judge" in an increasingly volatile global landscape.

"China always opposes the use or threat of force, as well as any imposition of one country's will on another, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not govern Venezuela day-to-day other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, even as President Donald Trump again insisted that the U.S. would be in control following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.

Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was due to appear in a US court on Monday after his weekend capture by American forces, with President Donald Trump leaving open the possibility of another incursion if the United States doesn't get its way with Venezuela's interim government. 

Trump told reporters that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with US efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking. He also threatened military action in Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba's communist regime "looks like it's ready to fall" on its own.