Up First from NPR - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is in New York City, faces narcoterrorism charges

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is in a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting trial on charges of narcoterrorism, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons charges. The operation to capture Maduro happened in the middle of the night as U.S. troops enjoyed the element of surprise. The U.S. says Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela and accuse him of being the leader of a violent drug cartel.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Good morning. I'm Ayesha Rosco, and you're listening to a special episode of our Sunday programming. We're bringing you the latest on the extraordinary developments from Venezuela. President Nicholas Maduro is now in New York City after being captured by the U.S. Stay with us. The U.S. operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro took the world by surprise. It happened in the dead of night by U.S. troops. We'll tell you how it all went down. And now President Trump says the U.S. is in charge.

So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. But what does U.S. leadership in Venezuela look like? Stay with us. We have the news you need. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. T's and Cs apply. In just a few hours, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro on Saturday,

and the leader is now in the United States facing criminal charges in New York City. To bring us up to speed, we're joined by NPR's Ada Peralta in Mexico City. Welcome to the show. Hey, Aisha. So first, can you remind us, like, how did this U.S. military operation play out? Yeah, as U.S. officials describe it, CIA officers were already in Venezuela for months before this operation. And this Saturday, the U.S. deployed more than 150 aircraft. They struck radar, air defenses, and military bases in Venezuela.

And then special ops teams swooped into Maduro's compound. The U.S. said it suffered no casualties. Venezuelan authorities say that some military and government officials were killed during the attacks. So Maduro is in the U.S. now. Where exactly is he? Yeah, he's at a federal detention center in Brooklyn, New York. He arrived in the U.S. by plane, and then he was put on a helicopter, which flew right in front of the Statue of Liberty. before landing in Brooklyn.

The Trump administration released a video of Maduro walking into what appears to be a DEA office. Maduro is wearing a black track suit and a beanie. And he says some words with his usual nonchalance. Good night. Happy New Year. He says. Maduro is now facing federal charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons charges. And in Venezuela, do we know who's running the government there?

We do. It's Vice President Delsi Rodriguez. Last night, the country's top court decided that she is now the interim president of Venezuela. And right before that decree, Rodriguez chaired a meeting of Venezuela's defense counsel. Rodriguez is very much a Maduro loyalist. She's been with him for more than a decade, rising through the ranks from communications minister to running Venezuela's intelligence agency. But interestingly, President Trump complicated things yesterday because he said that Rodriguez had spoken at length with Secretary of State or Rubio, and that she had agreed to do whatever the Americans wanted. But at this meeting with top Venezuelan government officials, which was broadcast on state television, she did not sound like someone on board with Trump's plans. There is only one president in Venezuela, she said, and his name is Nikolas Maduro. Delci Rodriguez also called the U.S. attacks barbaric, and she said Venezuelans will never again be any country's colony. We are ready to defend

Venezuela. We are ready, she said, to defend Venezuela. We are ready to defend our natural resources. And of course, she is referring to oil. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves. And President Trump made no secret that U.S. companies

want a piece of that business. I think the big question now is whether Delsi Rodriguez actually came to some agreement with the U.S. and whether she will lead Venezuela toward a transition, as Trump said, or whether she will lead a fight against US plans to run Venezuela. Nicholas Maduro was not a very popular president in Venezuela. Many independent observers say that when Venezuelans went to the polls in 2024, he actually lost. So what has been the reaction of Venezuelans? You know, for more than a decade, millions of Venezuelans have

left the country, and we've seen celebrations from that diaspora in cities. across the world, from Miami to here in Mexico City to Buenos Aires and Argentina. Inside Caracas, NPR sent a reporter out to talk to people, and we've heard a variety of opinions. There were lots of people who thought a change was long overdue, but they also expressed worry. That reporter found a shopkeeper at a long line at a pharmacy. He was awoken in the middle of the night by explosions, and he was out early buying food and medicine. He was preparing, he said, for what everyone expects will be tough days ahead. That's NPR's Ada Peralta.

Ader, thank you so much. Thank you, Ayesha. President Trump threatened Venezuela's president Nicholas Maduro for months. And still, U.S. forces enjoyed the element of surprise when they captured him. U.S. troops grabbed Maduro from his country. compound in the middle of the night and flew him away to the U.S. in under three hours. NPR National Security correspondent, Greg Mirey joins us now. Welcome. Hi, Ayesha.

So the U.S. buildup against Maduro lasted months. It was very public. But the actual operation was top secret. So what do we know about it? Yeah, General Dan Cain, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared with President Trump at a press briefing in Florida yesterday. Now, he said the plane. Planning included exhaustive work by the CIA and other intelligence agencies to learn as much as possible about Maduro's pattern of life. After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets. In early December, our force was set. So the U.S. troops were in place a month ago, but they had to wait for the right moment to launch.

And this is largely because of weather conditions. You're dealing with the Caribbean Sea, mountainous terrain, lots of frequent cloud cover. So when did the president decide to launch the attack? Yeah, Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago residence and gave the order a little before 11 p.m. on Friday night. The U.S. forces then launched 150 planes from 20 different locations. This included bombers, fighter jets, surveillance aircraft, drones. So many of these planes were helping to protect U.S. helicopters that were flying low over the sea, carrying Army Delta Force troops toward Maduro's compound in the capital. Again, here's Dan King.

As the force began to approach Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area. So the helicopters touched down at Maduro's compound just after 1 a.m. Saturday, and they came under fire, and one of them was hit, but it was still able to fly. So how did they know where to find Maduro? So the U.S. forces had trained on mock-ups of the compound, and they knew where to look for Maduro and his wife. Trump said the couple were trying to flee, but they were.

They then reached a safe room with a heavy steel door, but they couldn't close it. So the U.S. troops seized the couple. It put them on helicopters, and then they flew out quickly. And they cleared the Venezuela coast and were back over the Caribbean by 3.30 a.m. And they landed on the USS Iwojima. Now, Maduro was then put on a couple flights. He landed eventually in New York. He is now at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.

Does this mean all the U.S. forces have left Venezuela, and if so, what will they be doing next? Yeah, there's no signs of any U.S. troops in Venezuela, but Trump and General Kane said the U.S. forces remain in the region on ships and other places nearby like Puerto Rico, and Trump said they are ready to move in a second wave if they are needed. Now, the president in both his first term and this term, has been very reluctant to send. in troops on the ground, be it in Venezuela or elsewhere, but he said, quote, we're not afraid of boots on the ground. And he said that the U.S. can't just leave Venezuela or the country would never recover. And then in the remark that really grabbed everyone's attention, Trump said the U.S. would run Venezuela. And he said he'd do it with people that were with him at the news conference. He was referring to Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Pentagon Chief Pete Hagueceth,

along with Venezuelans as well. So how does the U.S. plan to run Venezuela if there are no American troops or U.S. government officials there? Yeah, this is far from clear. And it seems Trump would prefer not to send the troops back into Venezuela as an occupying force. And we should also note that the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela has been closed since 2019. Now, Trump sounded mildly supportive of Venezuela's vice president, Delsi Rodriguez, who now effectively in charge, Trump said she would be willing to do what the U.S. wanted. But shortly afterwards, she went on TV and delivered a very defiant message saying the U.S. had invaded her country and that Maduro was still the country's leader. And what about Maduro supporters in Venezuela? I mean, do we know what they might do?

No, we just don't know what the military and other pro-Moduro groups will do or how they'll respond to his ouster. And this is a very divided country. country. It's one industry, one valuable industry. Oil will need billions of dollars of investments. Trump says U.S. oil companies will jump in, but they will probably want to see some stability before they're willing to make that kind of big investment. Thank you. That's NPR's Greg. Myrie. Thank you so much. Sure thing, Aisha. The Venezuelan leader and his wife could appear in a courtroom this week. They're facing criminal charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department. NPR Justice correspondent, Carrie Johnson, has been following the story, and she's here now to talk more about it.

Hi, Carrie. Thank you. So, Carrie, what do we know about the criminal charges against Maduro and his family? A grand jury in Manhattan first indicted Maduro in 2020 on drug charges, but new prosecutors there added charges and defendants to that older case. Maduro now faces allegations of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import tons of cocaine, and possession of machine guns and other destructive devices. The unsealed indictment described him as misusing government power to promote illegal activity, basically lining his pocket. while protecting the violent drug cartels. U.S. authorities also charged Maduro's wife, Celia Flores, and his adult son.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post that they will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts that could happen this week. And here's how President Trump described the allegations at a news conference. The illegitimate dictator, Maduro, was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking, colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States. Okay, so those are the allegations. But what's the legal basis for this extraordinary operation by the U.S. government against a foreign leader who was forcibly removed from his own country? Really a stunning turn of events. And the administration has not so far released any

white paper or detailed explanation of its legal rationale, but there are some clues. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Maduro was not the legitimate president of Venezuela. He was referring to questionable elections there that the American government and others have refused to recognize as fair and free from corruption. Rubio also said flooding the U.S. with drugs and detaining Americans in Venezuela posed a direct threat to the United States. Here's more from Marco Rubio. He is a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward, which I guess we save $50 million. The U.S. government seems to be relying on a Justice Department legal memo from 1989 during the George H.W. Bush administration. That memo paved the way for American law enforcement to make arrests in other countries, even if those actions might violate international law. And that memo was issued before the U.S. captured Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega and sent him to the U.S. to face charges. Noriega was caught 36 years ago, also on January. 3rd. Noriega fought back against the U.S. charges and mostly lost, but that legal fight took

many years. And then just yesterday, Senator Mike Lee from Utah posted online, he spoke with the U.S. Secretary of State, and Rubio suggested military forces in Venezuela were playing a role to protect the U.S. law enforcement agents serving the arrest warrant against Maduro. So that's another possible legal rationale the Trump administration may be using here. The Trump administration is talking tough about drug trafficking in Venezuela, but the president recently pardoned another foreign official for similar crimes, right? Just a month ago, President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former leader of Honduras.

A jury in New York had found him guilty of misusing his role to help drug traffickers import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. Prosecutors in New York say he used drug money to fund his kids. campaign and that he used his power to protect drug lords. Hernandez had been serving a prison sentence of 45 years, but Trump friend and ally Roger Stone had advocated for his pardon. And Virginia Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, said in a statement yesterday that this new arrest of Maduro in Venezuela is a glaring hypocrisy. Here's how President Trump responded to that yesterday. The man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated

like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump. That didn't work out too well for them. This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. So, Carrie, what's next? Military operators put Maduro and his wife on the USS Iwojima. Trump posted a photo of Maduro apparently on that ship wearing what looks like a gray sweatsuit. They've since arrived in New York where they could make an initial appearance in court this coming week. The federal courts in New York have handled a lot of high-profile cases, including ones that involve major drug crimes. Now, Democrats in Congress say they want answers about why the administration did this without congressional approval, but Republicans control the White House in both chambers of Congress.

They don't have much appetite for oversight. And American courts typically do not weigh in on these kinds of national security matters. That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thanks, Gary. My pleasure. And that's up first for Sunday, January 4th, 2026. I'm Aisha Roscoe. Elena Tworick produced today's podcast. It was edited by Hadeal Al-Souchi, D. Parvas, Miguel Macias, and Andrew Sussman. Danny Hensel is the director. Our technical director was David Greenberg, with engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoeven,

Jay Sizz, and Simon Laslow Janssen. Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes, Evie Stone is our executive producer, and Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. For all the breaking news and many other stories, tune in to NPR, find your local station at stations.mpr.org. hear this podcast without sponsor breaks, Amazon Prime members can listen to Upfirst sponsor-free through Amazon music, or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Upfirst plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.