From New York, this is Democracy Now.

At my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation

in the capital of Venezuela.

The United Nations Security Council is holding an emergency meeting today after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and abducted

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a nighttime raid. President Trump has

claimed the U.S. will seize Venezuela's oil and run the country.

So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.

We will go to Caracas for response, then speak to two Venezuelan American professors,

and we'll talk to Georgetown law professor David Cole. He says the

invasion of Venezuela is not law enforcement. It's imperialism, pure and simple. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman.

The U.S. military launched a large-scale attack on Venezuela Saturday to capture Venezuelan President

Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores.

Missiles rained down on army bases, airfields, and key infrastructure across the capital

Caracas and the surrounding region.

By 2 a.m., U.S. Special Forces reached Maduro's residents and abducted him along with his wife.

They were then boarded onto a U.S. warship and flown to the United States.

President Trump posted an image of Maduro bound and blindfold aboard the USS Iwojima.

Maduro and his wife were later held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn,

New York, facing criminal charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine importation, conspiracy,

and weapons charges. They're now being flown by helicopter to lower Manhattan to appear in federal court.

Shortly after the operation, President Trump praised U.S. forces for abducting Maduro and his

...