{"id":111636,"date":"2026-01-05T19:11:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111636\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:11:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:11:30","slug":"us-plans-to-run-venezuela-and-tap-its-oil-reserves-trump-says-sparking-protest-in-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111636\/","title":{"rendered":"US plans to \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela and tap its oil reserves, Trump says, sparking protest in San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, Venezuela \u2013 Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power<\/a> and removed him from the country, President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.<\/p>\n

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American nation and its autocratic leader and months of secret planning resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n

Legal experts immediately raised questions<\/a> about whether the operation was lawful, and Venezuela\u2019s vice president demanded in a speech that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country\u2019s rightful leader.<\/p>\n

FILE: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a ceremonial sword in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro\u2019s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to \u201cfix\u201d the country\u2019s oil infrastructure and sell \u201clarge amounts\u201d of oil to other countries.<\/p>\n

Maduro and his wife<\/a>, seized overnight from their home on a military base, were first taken aboard a U.S. warship on their way to face prosecution for a Justice Department indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. A plane believed to be carrying the deposed leader landed Saturday evening in New York.<\/p>\n

A person in custody was escorted off the jet, gingerly making his way down a stairway before being led across the tarmac surrounded by federal agents. Several agents appeared to film the person on their phones.<\/p>\n

A large convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armored car, left a Manhattan heliport just before 7 p.m. and drove to a nearby U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office.<\/p>\n

The middle-of-the-night seizure of Maduro and his wife<\/a>, Cilia Flores, who were being transported on a U.S. warship to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in New York, is beyond even the most high-profile historical examples of aggressive American actions toward autocratic governments in Panama, Iraq and beyond, legal experts said. It came after a surprise U.S. incursion into the Venezuelan capital, rocked with overnight explosions early Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration described the operation<\/a> \u2014 and earlier deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea \u2014 as necessary to stem the flow of dangerous drugs.<\/p>\n

Protesters gather in San Antonio, elsewhere to protest US military action<\/p>\n

Dozens gathered in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon to protest the U.S. military action in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Protest held in San Antonio on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, following the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. (KSAT 12)<\/p>\n

People carried signs saying \u201cStop bombing Venezuela now!\u201d and \u201cNo blood for oil\u201d as they called for the release of Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re really here to do is condemn Trump and condemn the U.S. government for doing this act,\u201d said one protester at the rally. \u201cWe should not be celebrating the illegal kidnapping of the head of a sovereign state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protest held in San Antonio on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, following the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. (KSAT 12)<\/p>\n

Similar protests were held in other cities across the nation, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u2019s ouster sparks celebrations among Venezuelans in South Florida<\/p>\n

Revelers chanted \u201cliberty\u201d and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders in South Florida to celebrate Maduro\u2019s capture and removal from the country.<\/p>\n

People celebrate outside Versailles Cuban Cuisine after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country, in Miami, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jen Golbeck) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

For some Venezuelan natives, the military action \u2014 culminating months of stepped-up U.S. pressure \u2014 brought their dreams of reuniting with loved ones closer to reality after years of heartbreaking separations.<\/p>\n

People gathered for a rally in Doral, the Miami suburb where Trump has a golf resort and where roughly half the population is of Venezuelan descent.<\/p>\n

Lorenzo Coppola, 47, and his son Valentino join others to celebrate the news of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro capture in Doral, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vanessa Alvarez)<\/p>\n

Outside El Arepazo restaurant, a hub of the Venezuelan culture of Doral, one man held a piece of cardboard with \u201cLibertad\u201d scrawled with a black marker. It was a sentiment expressed by others hoping for a new beginning for their home country as they chanted \u201cLiberty! Liberty! Liberty!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like everybody \u2014 it\u2019s a combination of feelings, of course,\u201d said Alejandra Arrieta, who came to the U.S. in 1997. \u201cThere\u2019s fears. There\u2019s excitement. There\u2019s so many years that we\u2019ve been waiting for this. Something had to happen in Venezuela. We all need the freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuelans celebrate after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Esteban Felix) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)Move lacks congressional approval<\/p>\n

The legal authority for the incursion, done without congressional approval, was not immediately clear, but the Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed the U.S. government would help run the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate signs of that. Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference where he boasted that this \u201cextremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, that painted the regime as a \u201ccorrupt, illegitimate government\u201d fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n

Trump posted a photo on social media showing Maduro wearing a sweatsuit and a blindfold on board the USS Iwo Jima.<\/p>\n

Early morning attack<\/p>\n

The operation followed a monthslong Trump administration effort to push the Venezuelan leader, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike<\/a> at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels \u2014 the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.<\/p>\n

Maduro had decried prior military operations as a thinly veiled effort to topple him from power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday as Trump said the U.S. turned off \u201calmost all of the lights\u201d in the capital city of Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro \u2014 where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,\u201d Caine said. \u201cNot to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro\u2019s government accused the U.S. of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an \u201cimperialist attack\u201d and urging citizens to take to the streets.<\/p>\n

The assault lasted less than 30 minutes, and the explosions \u2014 at least seven blasts \u2014 sent people rushing into the streets<\/a>, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard. Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured but none were killed.<\/p>\n

Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without electricity.<\/p>\n

Under Venezuelan law, Rodr\u00edguez would take over from Maduro. But Rodriguez stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power. She called for Maduro\u2019s release and pronounced him president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some streets in Caracas fill up<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro\u2019s predecessor, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.<\/p>\n

Maduro took over when Ch\u00e1vez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating.<\/p>\n

A woman cries during a rally of supporters of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo\/Cristian Hernandez) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n

During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.<\/p>\n

In a demonstration of how polarizing a figure Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture and celebrate it.<\/p>\n

Government supporters rip an American flag in half during a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had captured President Nicols Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n

At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Mel\u00e9ndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaduro, hold on, the people are rising up!\u201d the crowd chanted. \u201cWe are here, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!\u201d<\/p>\n

Government supporters rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had captured President Nicols Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n

Earlier, armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party.<\/p>\n

In other parts of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Some areas remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.<\/p>\n

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I feel? Scared, like everyone,\u201d said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. \u201cVenezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions of legality<\/p>\n

Some legal experts raised immediate concerns about the operation\u2019s legality.<\/p>\n

The U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning, according to a council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting not yet made public.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast. Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.<\/p>\n

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on \u201cits plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARACAS, Venezuela \u2013 Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power and removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49215,145,41138,82,84,83,7533,3317],"class_list":["post-111636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-cilia-flores","tag-donald-trump","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}