The U.S. has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Is that legal?

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The U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a military operation early Saturday morning and put him on a warship bound for New York to face criminal charges, according to U.S. officials.

Below is a look at the legality of the U.S. action.

What happened?

On Saturday, U.S. ‍forces attacked ​Venezuela and seized Maduro – who has been widely condemned as an illegitimate leader – and his wife, Cilia Flores.

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Maduro of supporting drug cartels that Washington has designated terror groups, alleging they are responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths tied to illegal drug use.

Since September, U.S. forces have killed more than 100 people in at least 30 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats from Venezuela in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which legal experts say likely violated U.S. and international law.

How did the ⁠U.S. justify the action?

U.S. authorities said the Justice Department sought military assistance to apprehend Maduro, who had been indicted by a New York grand jury along with his wife, son, two political leaders and an alleged leader of an international gang. They were charged with crimes related to terrorism, drugs and weapons.

Attorney-General Pam Bondi said on social media that the defendants “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

However, at a news conference, Trump blamed Venezuela for stealing U.S. oil interests and ‌said Washington would take them back. He said the U.S. planned ‍to “run” Venezuela for a period of time, without offering specifics.

Experts in international law said the Trump administration had muddled the legal issues by claiming ‍the operation was both a targeted law enforcement mission and the potential prelude to long-term ‌control of Venezuela.

“You cannot say this was a law enforcement operation and then turn around and say now ⁠we need to run the country,” said Jeremy Paul, a professor at Northeastern University specializing in constitutional law. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

What does the law say?

The U.S. Congress has the ​power to declare war, but the President is the commander-in-chief, and presidents of both parties have justified carrying out military action when it was limited in scope and in the national interest.

Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, told Vanity Fair magazine in an interview published late last year that if Trump were to authorize “some activity on land” in Venezuela, he would need approval from Congress.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Congress was not notified before Saturday’s operation.

International law prohibits the use of force in international relations except for ​narrow exceptions such as authorization by the UN Security Council or in self-defence.

Drug trafficking and gang violence are considered criminal activity and do not rise to the accepted international standard of an armed conflict that would justify a military response, according to legal experts.

“A criminal indictment alone doesn’t provide authority to use military force to depose a foreign government, and the administration will probably hang this also on a theory of self-defence,” said Matthew Waxman, a law professor at Columbia University specializing in national security law.

The U.S. has not recognized Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela since 2019, after an election the U.S. said was rigged.

Is there a precedent?

The U.S. has captured criminal suspects in foreign countries, including ⁠Libya, but it has sought the consent of local authorities. While the administration describes Maduro as an illegitimate leader, Washington has not recognized another Venezuelan leader who could have ⁠authorized the capture of Maduro.

In 1989, the U.S. arrested General Manuel Noriega, then the leader of Panama, in similar circumstances. Noriega had been indicted on drug-related charges, and Washington said it was acting to ‌protect U.S. citizens after Panamanian forces had killed a U.S. soldier.

The U.S. had also alleged Noriega was an illegitimate leader and had recognized as the country’s leader the candidate Noriega had claimed to have defeated in a recent election.

The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, was extradited to the United States in 2022 and later convicted on drug-related charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned Hernandez in December.

Legal experts were skeptical that the U.S. would face any meaningful repercussions for its actions in Venezuela, even if they were unlawful, given the ‌lack of enforcement mechanisms in international law.

“It’s hard to see how any legal body could impose practical consequences on the administration,” said Northeastern’s Paul.