The New York Times editorial board railed against President Donald Trump’s military strike on Venezuela Saturday, calling the strike and U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “illegal and unwise.”
“Mr. Trump has not yet offered a coherent explanation for his actions in Venezuela. He is pushing our country toward an international crisis without valid reasons,” the board wrote in an editorial published hours after Trump announced the strike had occurred. “If Mr. Trump wants to argue otherwise, the Constitution spells out what he must do: Go to Congress. Without congressional approval, his actions violate U.S. law.”
Maduro was captured alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, early Saturday morning at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation, the country’s ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told the Associated Press. Trump told followers on Truth Social that the operation was “done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro had been indicted in connection with a slew of crimes including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. Calling the couple “international narco traffickers,” Bondi said they would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
