Spain’s left wing PM lashes out at Trump for ‘violating international law’ with Maduro

Spain‘s left-wing prime minister Pedro Sánchez has lashed out at Donald Trump for capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, as other EU leaders attempt a balancing act to avoid infuriating the US president. 

Maduro, 63, was captured in Caracas, his nation’s capital, alongside his wife Cilla Flores early on Saturday by the United States Army’s secretive Delta Force unit in a daring raid on his heavily-secured compound. 

The couple was seized from their bedroom in the dead of night by US forces as they slept, CNN reported. The raid did not lead to any US casualties.

The pair were snatched by helicopter from Caracas after their whereabouts were monitored by CIA spies, with Trump giving the order to take them. 

So far, much of the world has refused to outright condemn Trump’s actions. 

In the EU, Sánchez is leading the charge against Trump, saying in a statement that his government would not recognise any interventions in Venezuela that violated international law. 

He said: ‘Spain did not recognise the Maduro regime. But neither will it recognise an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region toward a horizon of uncertainty and belligerence.’

Others in the EU who joined him included Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico, who scathingly said the US’ incursion was ‘further evidence of the breakdown of the world order’, and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. 

The Putin-aligned leader said of Trump’s actions: ‘The liberal world order is in disintegration.’ 

But many other EU leaders have attempted to tread a fine line in their responses to Trump’s actions.  

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for ‘restraint’ and respect for international law in Venezuela while emphasising Maduro ‘lacks legitimacy’.

On Sunday the EU issued a statement signed by all member states save Hungary stating that respecting the will of the Venezuelan people was the only way to restore democracy.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the US operation undermined international law, and no solution to Venezuela’s crisis can be imposed externally.

But President Emmanuel Macron later said Venezuelans ‘can only rejoice’ at Maduro’s overthrow.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will discuss the ‘evolving situation’ in Venezuela with the US while stating Britain will ‘shed no tears’ about the demise of Maduro’s ‘regime’.

And Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga focused on Maduro’s lack of legitimacy and the Venezuelan government’s repression, while backing ‘democracy, human rights, and the interests of Venezuelans’.

In a rare expression of support for the US operation by a major European country, hard-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – a Trump ally – argued the US military action in Venezuela was ‘legitimate’ and ‘defensive’.

On Sunday Meloni said she had spoken to Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado about a transition of power, with the two agreeing that Maduro’s removal opens a ‘new chapter’ for the country.

Trump has dismissed Machado as a potential successor to Maduro.

In Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, the government made the rare move of freezing any assets held in the nation by Maduro and anyone associated with him ‘with immediate effect’. 

Outside Europe, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was ‘deeply alarmed’ by the US strikes, with his spokesman quoting him as saying it could ‘constitute a dangerous precedent’.

And Pope Leo XIV simply said the ‘welfare of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over all other considerations’.

Earlier today, Maduro and his wife Cilia were filmed awkwardly shuffling along a helipad as the pair were taken to court in New York City to face drugs charges that could result in their execution.  

Maduro is expected to appear in court Monday on drug and weapons charges that carry the death penalty.

He was driven from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center to a nearby helipad. He was then flown the short distance across the East River to the southern tip of Manhattan. 

There, he was seen shuffling awkwardly off the chopper in shackles before being put into a khaki-colored armored vehicle while surrounded by armed police officers. 

His wife, Cilla Flores, was flanked by his side as DEA agents escorted them from the heliport to the courthouse. 

The Maduros were subsequently driven to Manhattan Federal Court, where he will be arraigned at 12pm ET. 

Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state. 

Trump has accused Maduro of leading the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), which the president claims flooded the US with cocaine. 

A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US They could face life in prison if convicted.

It wasn’t clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a US attorney yet.

Maduro and Flores have been under US sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.

Maduro, his wife and his son – who remains free – are charged along with Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.

The indictment accuses Maduro and Flores of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. 

That included a local drug boss’ killing in Caracas, the indictment said.

Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between ‘a large-scale drug trafficker’ and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.

While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a US intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.