Venezuela faces key week as questions mount after US raid

There’s a growing sense of unease in Venezuela and across the region about what happens next

In this border city of Cúcuta, along the frontier with Venezuela, Colombian troops and four armoured personnel carriers are positioned to respond to any threats.

But there is no sense of chaos coming from Venezuela. In fact, there is only a growing sense of bafflement across the region over US intentions.

President Trump oversaw a successful military grab-and-go road by US Special Forces, and the deposed Nicolás Maduro will on Monday make his appearance in a New York courtroom.

Nicolás Maduro will stand trial in New York. / Credit: Paul Mauro / X / Truth Social / AP

But 2,000 miles south of the courthouse, in Caracas, the Maduro regime seems intact, his advisers and closest aides filling the power vacuum.

Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s deputy, is now the interim president. Vladimir Padrino Lopez remains the Defence Minister. The generals seem defiant and in control, accusing the US of imperial aggression and appealing for calm.

So what happens next? Venezuela is twice the size of Iraq, and there is no obvious US planning for the next step.

Will there be an occupation or a guardianship of some sort? Or just intimidation and a hope that new leaders will roll over in the face of the US armada off the coast?

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro faces multiple charges following his capture by Donald Trump’s forces early on Saturday morning. US Correspondent Dan Rivers and Robert Moore, in Cúcuta, Colombia, report

Meanwhile, Trump is making further threatening noises against Colombia, calling it a cocaine factory that endangers the US.

When a reporter on Sunday night asked him aboard Air Force One if he was considering a military operation against Colombia, Trump suggested it was on his wish list.

This is American gunboat diplomacy unleashed and unconstrained.

It is excruciating for European leaders who are looking feckless and confused.

It will embolden China and Russia, who can see that the so-called rules-based order is crumbling before their eyes.

Most immediately, leaders in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland – all of whom have faced US threats – must be lying awake at night wondering what the US President will do next.