NEW YORK: Venezuela’s toppled chief, Nicolas Maduro, was in a New York detention centre on Sunday (Jan 4) awaiting drug expenses after President Donald Trump ordered an audacious raid to capture him, saying the US would take control of the oil-producing nation.
The picture of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed en path to the US has shocked Venezuelans and was Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America because the invasion of Panama 37 years in the past.
Maduro, who wished his captors a “Glad New Yr” on arrival, is because of seem in a Manhattan court docket on Monday.
With reminiscences of painful US interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many world leaders have been staggered at Trump’s transfer, although Maduro’s standing was low given his autocratic rule and substantial proof of vote-rigging.
“THERE IS FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY”
At house, Maduro allies have been nonetheless in cost and have denounced his “kidnapping” as a part of an imperialist oil seize.
Streets have been far quieter than normal as Venezuelans anxiously mentioned what would come subsequent. Some stocked up on necessities however many merely hunkered indoors.
“I’ve simply taken the canine out and it appears like an deserted metropolis, persons are shut inside,” mentioned Alejandra Palencia, 35, a psychologist within the metropolis of Maracay.
“There may be concern and uncertainty.”
Trump mentioned the US would, for now, handle the South American nation of about 30 million folks plus its oil reserves, the most important on the earth. However he gave few particulars of how.
“We’ll run the nation till such time as we are able to do a secure, correct and even handed transition,” he informed a press convention at his Mar-a-Lago resort, hailing the extraordinary extraction of Maduro simply as he was on the door of a secure room.
