BEIJING: China called on the United States on Sunday to immediately release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after Washington carried out a strike on Caracas and captured the leader. &quot;China calls on the US to ensure the personal safety of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, release them at once, stop toppling the government of Venezuela,&quot; the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement, calling the strike a &quot;clear violation of international law&quot;. Russia condemns Russia&#39;s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement concerning developments around Venezuela. &quot;In view of the confirmed reports about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his spouse being in the United States, we strongly urge the US leadership to reconsider their position and release the legitimately elected president of a sovereign country and his spouse,&quot; it said. &quot;We highlight the need to create conditions for resolving any existing issues between the United States and Venezuela through dialogue.&quot;

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'China calls on the US to ensure the personal safety of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, release them at once, stop toppling the government of Venezuela,' the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement, calling the strike a 'clear violation of international law'; Russia condemned the US intervention,saying it 'strongly urge[s] the US leadership to reconsider their position and release the legitimately elected president of a sovereign country and his spouse.'

China, Russia call on US to 'immediately release' Venezuela's Maduro

&nbsp;CARACAS: A lingering smell of explosives hung over Venezuela&#39;s capital Caracas on Saturday as shocked residents took stock after an early-morning US strike that ousted strongman Nicolas Maduro. While a few hundred Maduro supporters gathered to clamor for his freedom, the streets were otherwise eerily quiet. &quot;I felt the explosions lift me out of bed. In that instant, I thought: &#39;My God, the day has come,&#39; and I cried,&quot; Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of the city of six million people, told AFP. The strikes started around 2:00 am local time, with dozens of detonations that some people at first mistook for fireworks. Windows rattled from the shockwaves, and residents rushed out onto terraces and balconies as military aircraft zoomed overhead. &quot;It was horrible, we felt the planes flying over our house,&quot; said a resident of the Coche neighborhood, near the city&#39;s largest military complex, which was targeted in the raid. Residents saw columns of smoke rising from several parts of the city, which was soon cloaked in a fog-like haze. Witnesses spoke of bombings in La Guaira, Caracas&#39;s airport and port, in Maracay to the west, and in Higuerote to the east. &#39;Absurd!&nbsp;In the aftermath, Venezuelans soon learned their long-ruling leader, Maduro, was out. US special forces seized Maduro and took him to face trial in New York. A few hundred supporters gathered in Caracas to demand news of their leader&#39;s fate. &quot;Long live Nicolas Maduro,&quot; echoed a rally cry from a hastily erected stage with speakers blaring revolutionary music. &quot;Long live!&quot; responded the crowd. Katia Briceno, a 54-year-old university professor, came out to protest against what she described as the US &#39;barbarism.&#39; &quot;How is it that a foreign government comes into the country and removes the president? It&#39;s absurd!&quot; she told AFP. Apart from the protesters, there were few Venezuelans out, and just occasional cars on the usually bustling streets. Those who did venture out did so under the watchful eye of black-clad agents patrolling the center with long guns. Many stores were closed after the attack, while queues formed at others that were letting people in a few at a time. Damage from the explosions was mostly limited to military installations, where vehicles stood riddled by bullets, others smouldering and charred. Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino Lopez accused the US forces of attacking civilian areas with missiles and rockets fired from combat helicopters. President Donald Trump said no US soldiers died in Saturday&#39;s strikes, but the toll on the Venezuelan side remained unknown. For residents of Caracas, the future is uncertain. Trump said he was &quot;not afraid of boots on the ground&quot; and mooted the possibility of a &quot;much bigger&quot; second wave of strikes if necessary. He also said the United States will &#39;run&#39; Venezuela until a political transition occurs. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado insists Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition says won elections in July 2024 in which Maduro claimed victory, &quot;must immediately assume his constitutional mandate&quot; as president. Trump appeared to scotch any expectation that Machado herself might emerge as Venezuela&#39;s new leader. She does not have &#39;support or respect&#39; there, he said. Trump indicated he could instead work with Maduro&#39;s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying &quot;she&#39;s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.&quot; Neighboring Colombia was reinforcing its border with Venezuela, using tanks and armed soldiers who normally fight guerrillas to secure the frontier. Colombian security forces deployed at the main border crossings on the orders of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who has clashed with Trump over his months-long military buildup in the region. Petro&#39;s government has warned of a potential humanitarian crisis with migrants pouring over the border from Venezuela. However, on the Simon Bolivar bridge in Villa del Rosaria, the main crossing point, the number of people walking across on Saturday was far below normal.

File: Miraflores Palace In Caracas, Venezuela (Wikimedia Commons) 

Caracas lay eerily quiet after early-morning US strikes ousted President Nicolas Maduro. Explosions hit military sites, sparked protests and uncertainty, prompted border tensions with Colombia, and raised fears of US intervention.

Venezuelan capital quiet, streets empty after US strike

PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will &quot;run&quot; Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves after snatching leftist leader Nicolas Maduro out of the country during a bombing raid on Caracas. Trump&#39;s announcement came hours after a lightning attack in which special forces grabbed Maduro and his wife, while air strikes pounded sites in and around the capital city. <p style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2;" id="isPasted">A US government plane carrying Maduro landed at a military base shortly after nightfall, and he was transported by helicopter to New York City, where the couple were to be arraigned on drug trafficking and weapons charges.<p style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2;"> <p style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2;">The White House posted a video on X of Maduro, handcuffed and in sandals, escorted by federal agents through a US Drug Enforcement Administration facility in New York.<p style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2;"> <p style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2;">&quot;Good night, happy new year,&quot; the 63-year-old leftist is heard saying in English. &#39;Not afraid of boots on the ground&#39;Despite the success of the risky operation, what happens next is highly uncertain. Trump said he was &quot;designating people&quot; from his cabinet to be in charge in Venezuela, but gave no details of how this would work. In another surprise, Trump indicated US troops could be deployed there in the future, saying Washington is &quot;not afraid of boots on the ground.&quot; But he appeared to reject the possibility of the country&#39;s repressed opposition taking power and said he could work instead with Maduro&#39;s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez. One aspect that became clearer was the White House&#39;s motivation, with Trump indicating regime change and Venezuela&#39;s oil riches were the major goals. &quot;We&#39;re going to have our very large United States oil companies ... spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;ll be selling large amounts of oil.&quot; At Venezuela&#39;s request, the UN Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss the US operation to seize Maduro, the Somali presidency of the Council told AFP. Trump dismisses opposition leader&nbsp;US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media that &quot;the hour of freedom has arrived.&quot; She called for the opposition&#39;s 2024 election candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to &quot;immediately&quot; assume the presidency. But Trump was surprisingly cold on the prospect that Machado could become Venezuela&#39;s new leader, saying she doesn&#39;t have &quot;support or respect&quot; there. Instead, he touted Rodriguez, saying &quot;she&#39;s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.&quot; Rodriguez, however, poured cold water on that, demanding Maduro&#39;s release and vowing to &quot;defend&quot; the country. Supreme Court&#39;s order Venezuela&#39;s Supreme Court late Saturday ordered Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to become the country&#39;s interim leader, after the United States seized President Nicolas Maduro and whisked him out of the country. The high court ruled that Rodriguez &quot;assume and exercise, in an acting capacity, all the attributes, duties and powers inherent to the office of President...to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation.&quot; The judges stopped short of declaring Maduro permanently absent from office, a ruling that requires holding elections within 30 days. Reflecting the confusion, Trump indicated that US involvement is likely to be long-term. &quot;We&#39;re there now, but we&#39;re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,&quot; he said. China, a backer of Maduro&#39;s leftist regime, said it &quot;strongly condemns&quot; the US operation, while France warned a solution cannot &quot;be imposed from outside.&quot; United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was &quot;deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.&quot; Blackout and bombing&nbsp;Venezuelans had been bracing for attacks as US forces spent months massing off the coast. Caracas residents woke to explosions and the whir of military helicopters around 2 am (0600 GMT). Air strikes hit a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, for nearly an hour, AFP journalists said. The top US military officer, General Dan Caine, said 150 aircraft took part in the operation, supporting troops helicoptering in to seize Maduro with the help of months of intelligence into the leader&#39;s daily habits &mdash; down to &quot;what he ate&quot; and what pets he kept. Maduro, 63, and his wife &quot;gave up&quot; without a struggle, and there was &quot;no loss of US life,&quot; he said. Several hours after the attacks, Venezuelan authorities had yet to release casualty figures. But Trump told a US media outlet that &quot;many&quot; Cubans who were part of Maduro&#39;s security detail were among the dead. Within hours of the operation, Caracas had fallen eerily quiet, with police stationed outside public buildings and a smell of smoke drifting through the streets. Shifting justifications&nbsp;The US and numerous European governments did not recognize Maduro&#39;s legitimacy, saying he stole elections in 2018 and 2024. Maduro &mdash; in power since 2013 after taking over from leftist mentor Hugo Chavez &mdash; long accused Trump of seeking regime change to control Venezuela&#39;s oil reserves. Trump has offered several justifications for the aggressive policy toward Venezuela, at times stressing illegal migration, narcotics trafficking, and the country&#39;s oil industry. But he had previously avoided openly calling for regime change. Several members of Congress quickly questioned the legality of the operation. However, Trump&#39;s key ally, Mike Johnson, the &nbsp;Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, said it was &quot;justified.&quot;

President Donald Trump says the US military caused a blackout in Caracas to carry out an operation capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro now in New York jail as Trump says US to 'run' Venezuela

WASHINGTON: The United States has stopped and boarded an oil tanker off Venezuela, the latest salvo in a pressure campaign against Caracas, US media reported Saturday. The New York Times reported that the vessel was a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying Venezuelan oil that had recently left Venezuela and was in Caribbean waters.

United States stopped and boarded an oil tanker off Venezuela, the latest salvo in a pressure campaign against Caracas

Articles tagged with "Caracas"

China, Russia call on US to 'immediately release' Venezuela's Maduro

Venezuelan capital quiet, streets empty after US strike

Maduro now in New York jail as Trump says US to 'run' Venezuela

US intercepts oil tanker off coast of Venezuela: US media