Maduro Captured After US Strikes: What Next For Venezuela? Here's All You Need To Know

The United States has detained Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro following airstrikes on the socialist South American nation. President Donald Trump has declared that the US will assume control of the oil-rich country. Meanwhile, members of Maduro’s administration who remain in Caracas, the capital, have pledged to stand firmly behind him.

This marks the most contentious US military action in Latin America in 37 years, since the invasion of Panama.

Below are responses to major questions regarding the US–Venezuela crisis:

Trump has stated unequivocally that the US will take control of the South American country. His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has supported this position, noting — as cited by CBS News — that “the president always retains optionality on anything and on all of these matters.”

Rubio added, according to Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, that Trump “certainly has the ability and the right under the Constitution of the United States to act against imminent and urgent threats against the country.”

However, the reality on the ground remains different for now. Senior officials in Maduro’s government continue to hold authority within the country, Reuters reported.

“The unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio message shared by the ruling PSUV socialist party.

At present, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is also the oil minister, has assumed responsibilities as interim president with the approval of Venezuela’s top court.

Trump has previously issued a warning to her, telling The Atlantic that Rodriguez could “pay even a bigger price than Maduro if she doesn’t do what’s right,” after she publicly denied his claim that she was willing to cooperate with the US.

Trump has cautioned that he is “not afraid” to place US troops “on the ground” in Venezuela. Rubio told CBS News that Trump does not intend to publicly rule out any options available to the US, “even though that's not what you're seeing right now.”

Rubio has openly linked the strikes to oil interests.

“What you're seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next,” he said.

According to Rubio, this “quarantine” gives the US the authority to seize oil shipments following a court order, providing “tremendous leverage” until changes occur that advance both US national interests and “a better future for the people of Venezuela,” CBS News reported.

He also suggested allowing Maduro’s subordinates time to govern while Washington considers its next steps: “We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do.”

Following US strikes on Venezuela on Saturday, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into custody and transported to New York. Maduro is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Trump has stated that both Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on alleged “drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies” and will face trial on those charges.