Venezuela live updates: Maduro to appear in court as Trump administration briefs Congress on strikes

Leading congressional Democrats emerged from a classified briefing Monday evening concerned that President Donald Trump could take military action against additional countries after the United States’s capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, declined to offer assurances that the president was not weighing similar actions in Maduro-allied countries such as Cuba and Colombia, according to several Democrats.

“I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrats on the Senate and House foreign relations panels, also expressed a lack of clarity from officials on military strikes or regime change against other countries that Trump has said is a possibility in the wake of Maduro’s ouster. Trump has also repeatedly floated the idea of acquiring Greenland, a territory of Denmark, including the possibility of doing so by military force.

“Clearly, Donald Trump does everything that he can to avoid Congress,” Meeks said. “He doesn’t think that Congress is relevant.”

Administration officials say they did not brief lawmakers on the mission in Venezuela beforehand due to concerns about leaks to the press.

Lawmakers briefed on Monday included the so-called Gang of Eight: the majority and minority leaders in both chambers, as well as the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees. Also included were the top Democrats and Republicans of both chambers’ armed services and foreign affairs panels. A broader briefing for all members of Congress is expected later this week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised the operation in Venezuela, following a bipartisan briefing with several congressional and committee leaders, saying that an all-member briefing will come “midweek.”

“So far, the administration has scheduled an all-member briefing on Wednesday, and I don’t know if it’s confirmed while we were in there, but it will be midweek,” he said.

The speaker confirmed the United States does “not have armed forces in Venezuela,” adding, “We are not occupying that country.”

Johnson defended congressional leaders not being briefed before the operation, saying, “The intelligence was so sensitive the conditions had to be perfect,” adding that there was “no predetermination of when exactly it would occur.” The speaker said any indication of it through assembling congressional leaders would have “set off alerts.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) told reporters the “previous vice president, now acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, is there running the country.” The chairman said all the secretaries and directors gave every justification needed.

Mast went on to say that Venezuela will have “an opportunity for free and fair elections in the future.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) walked into a briefing on the land operation in Venezuela with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine
saying he has “a lot of questions,” adding it was “dangerous and reckless.”

The briefing includes top lawmakers from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the House and Senate Armed Services committees. Congressional leaders and members of the intelligence committees, also known as the Gang of Eight, will be included.

Nearly 200 U.S. special operations troops landed in Caracas on Saturday as part of the operation to capture Maduro, Hegseth revealed.

“We saw three nights ago, in downtown Caracas in Venezuela, as nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas. … Seems those Russian air defenses didn’t quite work so well,” Hegseth said.

The main contingent consisted of Delta Force commandos, the U.S. Army’s most elite and secretive unit. It took them three minutes to capture Maduro after reaching his compound.

In conjunction with the ground troops, approximately 150 aircraft of various types and thousands of support personnel participated.

Only six U.S. troops were wounded in the raid, with none killed.

Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the interim president of Venezuela after Delta Force commandos snatched her predecessor on Saturday.

Rodriguez was Maduro’s vice president and became the acting president after his capture on Saturday. Her swearing-in by her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, president of the parliament, indicates that she has the backing of Venezuela’s key power players, despite Trump’s praise of her.

She initially struck a defiant tone, then voiced a willingness to cooperate with the United States on Sunday after threats from Trump.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that the U.S. annexation of Greenland would mean the end of NATO.

“If the United States decides to militarily attack another NATO country, then everything would stop — that includes NATO and therefore post-Second World War security,” she told Danish television network TV2.

Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also warned Trump, saying the president must give up his “fantasies about annexation” and accusing the United States of “completely and utterly unacceptable” rhetoric.

“Enough is enough,” he said in a social media post.

The sudden renewed worries from Denmark came after Trump floated possible action against Greenland in the same breath he was talking about Saturday’s operation to capture Maduro.

The Venezuelan government released a decree ordering the arrest of anyone who expresses support for the daring U.S. operation that captured Maduro.

“The national, state, and municipal police agencies must immediately undertake the search and capture throughout the national territory of any person involved in the promotion or support of the armed attack by the United States of America against the territory of the Republic … with a view to their prosecution,” the decree from the State of External Commotion read.

The decree was signed by Maduro, despite his being imprisoned in the U.S. He had originally signed the decree in September, CNN reported, and its contents were updated with Saturday’s developments. The decree was dated Saturday.

Maduro claimed he was “kidnapped” and taken as a “prisoner of war” as he was taken out of court.

Maduro appeared agitated in court on Monday, at one point being cut off by the judge as he tried to speak. He frequently noted his innocence and claimed he was still the president of Venezuela.

Maduro is being represented by Barry Pollack, an experienced attorney who brokered Julian Assange’s plea deal.

Pollack appeared in court alongside his new client on Monday. The two don’t appear to have been able to speak much before Pollack took Maduro on as a client, as the deposed dictator said he hadn’t seen the indictment and didn’t know his rights.

Pollack told the judge that his client has health problems that must be attended to.

The attorney of Flores claimed that she suffered “severe” injuries during Saturday’s early morning raid.

Her attorney asked the judge to authorize “a full X-ray” over concerns she suffered “fractured or severe bruising on her ribs” during Operation Absolute Resolve, the Washington Post reported.

Flores reportedly wore a bandage near her left temple and had bruising near her right eye, the New York Times reported. When she stood up to make her plea, she appeared to hold on to a U.S. marshal for support.

While U.S. cameras were quick to capture Maduro’s picture, Flores hasn’t been recorded since her capture. The United States hadn’t previously noted any complications or resistance from the couple during their apprehension.

Maduro’s attorney also said that he had unspecified health problems that had to be attended to.

The judge asked the prosecution and defense to ensure that Maduro and his wife receive proper medical care.

The next court hearing for Maduro and his wife was scheduled for March 17.

The volume of evidence and the complications involved make the two-and-a-half-month delay expected.

The hearing lasted just over one hour, with an agitated Maduro expressing confusion about his rights. He was noted by reporters as frantically writing on his notepad, then requesting to keep his notes.

He and his wife pleaded not guilty.

Former Venezuelan first lady Cilia Adela Flores, wife of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, pleaded not guilty.

Flores appeared alongside her husband at a New York City court on Monday. Her disposition was noted by reporters as calm, in contrast to her husband, who was furiously writing things down on his notepad.

Flores was captured alongside Maduro early on Saturday morning and is alleged to have played a major role in facilitating drug trafficking using state assets.

Venezuela’s opposition leader in exile, Maria Corina Machado, thanked Trump for his operation to capture Maduro.

In a post in Spanish on X, Machado noted the ubiquity of Venezuelans celebrating across the world, noting they took to the streets in “30 countries and 130 cities around the world.” The capture of the dictator, Machado said, was a “huge step that marks the inevitability and imminence of the transition in Venezuela.” She then personally thanked Trump.

“We Venezuelans thank President Donald Trump (@POTUS) and his administration for their firmness and determination in upholding the law. Venezuela will be the main ally of the United States in matters of security, energy, democracy, and human rights,” she wrote.

“The freedom of Venezuela is near, and soon we will celebrate on our land. We will shout, pray, and embrace as a family, because our children will return home,” Machado added.

The former Venezuelan dictator pleaded not guilty to the charges against him after appearing in court at noon.

“I am innocent, I am not guilty, I am a decent man,” Maduro was quoted as saying.

“I am still president of my country,” he added.

The judge cut him off after he tried to keep speaking.

Prosecutors alleged former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro ordered Venezuela’s pro-government militia group to facilitate the operations of his drug trafficking, including kidnapping, beating, and killing drug debtors.

The indictment claimed that between 2004 and 2015, Maduro and his wife trafficked cocaine with the assistance of state and parastate forces, often trafficking cocaine that had been previously seized by Venezuelan law enforcement. Much of this trafficking occurred “with the assistance of armed military escorts.”

The indictment claimed the Maduros used the Colectivos, a left-wing pro-government paramilitary group, to facilitate and protect their drug trafficking operations.

The couple “also ordered kidnappings, beatings, and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation, including ordering the murder of a local drug boss in Caracas, Venezuela,” the indictment read.