Venezuela’s captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife will face "the full wrath of American justice" under drug and terrorism charges, the Trump administration said Saturday.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi posted on X that Maduro and his wife, who were earlier removed from Venezuela by the U.S. military, according to Washington, "will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts."
Bondi recalled the Maduros face charges in New York federal court on existing "Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy" charges.
The United States hit Venezuela with a "large-scale strike" early Saturday and said its president had been captured and flown out of the country after months of intense pressure on Nicolás Maduro's government - an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
The legal authority for the strike - and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand - was not immediately clear. The stunning, lightning-fast American military action, which plucked a nation's sitting leader from office, echoed the U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 - exactly 36 years ago Saturday.
