U.S. attacks on Venezuela prompt praise, anger — and fear

MEXICO CITY — Argentina’s president called it “excellent news for the free world.”

Iran condemned it as a “blatant violation of national sovereignty.”

Canada said little, except that it was “monitoring developments closely.”

The dramatic U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was cheered by world leaders allied with President Trump, and condemned by those who oppose him.

Other countries responded carefully to news of the covert U.S. operation, hoping to stay out of the crosshairs of a famously vindictive American president who wields tariffs freely — and who has hinted at a willingness to broaden his military campaign.

On Saturday, as details emerged about the early morning apprehension of Maduro and his wife from their Caracas home by special operations forces and the White House plan to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, Trump boasted that he is “reasserting American power in a very powerful way” and suggested that he may target Cuba, Colombia and Mexico next.

Venezuelans celebrate in Madrid after President Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country on Saturday.

(Bernat Armangue / AP)

At a news conference, Trump said he wants to “help the people in Cuba,” which he described as a “failing nation,” and threatened military action in Colombia, whose leftist President Gustavo Petro has been one of Trump’s most vocal critics.

Trump asserted, without evidence, that Petro is a drug trafficker and warned that Colombia’s leader should “watch his ass.”

In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, Trump also revived warnings that U.S. forces may intervene in Mexico, one of America’s closest allies.

“The cartels are running Mexico,” he said. “We have to do something.”

Some conservative leaders in Mexico welcome the prospect of U.S. drone strikes on cartel targets, and in recent polls about half of Mexicans surveyed said they support U.S. help with combating organized crime.

Venezuelan citizens in San Jose, Costa Rica, celebrate during a rally after the confirmation of Nicolás Maduro’s capture early Saturday morning.

(Manuel Arnoldo Robert Batalla/Getty Images)

But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly insisted that she will not allow the U.S. military to fight drug cartels inside her nation’s borders.

“It’s not going to happen,” she said late last year when Trump threatened such an operation. “We don’t want intervention by any foreign government.”

She reposted a statement by her Foreign Ministry on Saturday that said “the government of Mexico vigorously condemns and rejects the military actions carried out unilaterally in recent hours by the armed forces of the United States of America against targets in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

Sheinbaum also mentioned the United Nations Charter, which says members of the body “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

People take part in a demonstration against U.S. military action in Venezuela in front of the White House in Washington on Saturday.

(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump’s actions prompted a rare statement from Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose term as Mexico’s president ended in 2024, and who has rarely spoken publicly since his retirement.

“I am retired from politics, but my libertarian convictions prevent me from remaining silent in the face of the arrogant attack on the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and the kidnapping of their president,” said López Obrador, who formed a friendship with Trump during the first Trump presidency. “Neither [Simon] Bolívar nor Lincoln would accept the United States government acting as a global tyranny.”

A man holds the flags of Venezuela and the United States next to the statue of Simon Bolivar in Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, during a rally after the confirmation of Nicolás Maduro’s capture on Saturday.

(Andres Rot/Getty Images)

He told Trump not to bend to the will of advisors pressing for military actions. “Tell the hawks to go to hell; you have the capacity to act with practical judgment,” López Obrador said.

In Latin America, the Middle East and in other parts of the world familiar with the long shadow of American intervention, Saturday’s operation stirred memories of past U.S. airstrikes, coups d’état and military invasions.

“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He said Maduro’s ouster recalled “the darkest moments of [U.S.] interference in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, without mentioning specifics or possible new targets, viewed the action against Maduro as setting “a dangerous precedent,” according to his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric.

“He’s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected,” Dujarric said of Guterres.

A man burns a United States flag during a rally in San Salvador, El Salvador, after Nicolás Maduro’s capture Saturday.

(Getty Images)

U.S. intervention in the region dates back 200 years, when President James Monroe declared Latin America off limits to European colonization and began a campaign to establish the U.S. as a hemispheric power.

Over decades, the U.S. carried out an array of interventions, from military invasions to covert operations to economic pressure campaigns. Motivations included fighting communism and protecting U.S. business interests.

In his Saturday news conference, Trump hailed the Monroe Doctrine, which many in Latin American have condemned as an imperialist blueprint.

“We’ve superceded it by a lot,” Trump said of the doctrine. “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”

While many countries in Latin America criticized the U.S. campaign in Venezuela, others applauded it, highlighting the stark political divisions here.

“The time is coming for all the narco-Chavista criminals,” wrote conservative Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on X, referring to followers of Hugo Chávez, the late leftist revolutionary who served as president of Venezuela before Maduro. “Their structure will finally collapse across the entire continent.”

Venezuelan citizens in Lima, Peru, celebrate during a rally after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s capture Saturday.

(Mariana Bazo/Getty Images)

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who last year housed Venezuelan deportees from the United States in his country’s most notorious prison, posted a photograph issued by the United States on Saturday of Maduro blindfolded and in handcuffs.

The foreign ministry of Uruguay, meanwhile, said it rejected “military intervention by one country in the territory of another.”

The actions in Venezuela reverberated globally.

Beijing, which has sought to expand its influence in Latin America in recent decades, said in a statement that “China is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the U.S.’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and its action against its president.”

Iran, whose leadership frets about being in the crosshairs of a similar U.S. operation, said the action in Venezuela “represents a grave breach of regional and international peace and security.”

“Its consequences affect the entire international system,” it said.