MEXICO CITY — Argentina's president called it “great news for the free world.”
Iran condemned it as a “blatant violation of national sovereignty.”
Canada said little other than to say it was “closely monitoring developments.”
dramatic US takeover Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been welcomed by world leaders allied to President Trump and condemned by those who oppose him.
Other countries have reacted cautiously to news of the US covert operation, hoping to stay out of the crosshairs of a notoriously vindictive American president who freely uses tariffs — and who hinted at a willingness to expand his military campaign.
On Saturday, as details emerged of the early-morning detention of Maduro and his wife at their home in Caracas by special operations forces, as well as the White House's plan to exploit Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Trump boasted that he was “restoring American power in a very powerful way” and suggested he might target Cuba, Colombia and Mexico next.
Venezuelans are celebrating in Madrid after President Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been captured and taken out of the country on Saturday.
(Bernat Armang/AP)
At a news conference, Trump said he wanted to “help the people of Cuba,” which he called a “failed nation,” and threatened military action in Colombia, whose leftist President Gustavo Petro has been one of Trump's most outspoken critics.
Trump claimed without evidence that Petro was a drug dealer and warned that the Colombian leader should “watch his ass.”
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, Trump also renewed warnings that U.S. forces could invade Mexico, one of America's closest allies.
“Mexico is run by cartels,” he said. “We have to do something.”
Some conservative leaders in Mexico welcome the prospect of U.S. drone strikes against cartel targets, and in recent polls, about half of Mexicans surveyed said they support U.S. help fighting the cartels. fight against organized crime.
Venezuelan citizens in San Jose, Costa Rica, celebrate during a rally after the confirmation of the detention of Nicolas Maduro early Saturday morning.
(Manuel Arnoldo Robert Batalla/Getty Images)
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly insisted that she will not allow the US military to fight drug cartels inside her country's borders.
“It's not going to happen,” she said late last year when Trump threatened such an operation. “We don’t want any foreign government to interfere.”
On Saturday, it posted a statement from its Foreign Ministry saying that “the Mexican government strongly 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 UN Charter, which states that the organization's members “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 US military action in Venezuela in front of the White House in Washington on Saturday.
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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 have retired from politics, but my libertarian beliefs do not allow me to remain silent in the face of arrogant attacks on the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and the kidnapping of their president,” said López Obrador, who became friends with Trump during Trump’s first presidency. “Not one [Simon] Bolivar and Lincoln would not admit that the United States government operates as a global tyranny.”
A man holds Venezuelan and US flags next to a statue of Simon Bolivar in Plaza Bolivar in Bogota, Colombia, during a rally following the confirmation of Nicolás Maduro's capture on Saturday.
(Andres Roth/Getty Images)
He advised Trump not to bow to the will of advisers insisting on military action. “Send the hawks to hell; you have the ability to act based on practical judgment,” López Obrador said.
In Latin America, the Middle East and other parts of the world familiar with the long shadow of American intervention, Saturday's operation evoked memories of past U.S. airstrikes, coups and military incursions.
“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He said Maduro's resignation was reminiscent of “the darkest moments [U.S.] interference in the affairs of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Without mentioning specifics or possible new targets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the move against Maduro as setting a “dangerous precedent,” according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“He is deeply concerned that international law is not being respected,” Dujarric said of Guterres.
A man burns a US flag during a rally in San Salvador, El Salvador, following the capture of Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.
(Getty Images)
The US invasion of the region began 200 years ago when President James Monroe declared Latin America closed to European colonization and began a campaign to establish the US as a hemispheric power.
Over the decades, the United States has carried out a range of interventions, from military invasions to covert operations and economic pressure campaigns. The motives were the fight against communism and the protection of US business interests.
At his Saturday news conference, Trump hailed the Monroe Doctrine, which many in Latin America have denounced as an imperialist project.
“We have surpassed it in many ways,” Trump said of the doctrine. “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never again be questioned.”
While many Latin American countries have criticized the US campaign in Venezuela, others have applauded it, highlighting bitter political divisions here.
“The time is coming for all the narco-Chavista criminals,” Ecuador’s conservative President Daniel Noboa wrote on X, referring to followers of Hugo Chavez, the late leftist revolutionary who served as Venezuela’s president before Maduro. “Their structure will finally collapse across the continent.”
Venezuelan citizens in Lima, Peru, celebrate during a rally following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.
(Mariana Bazo/Getty Images)
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, who last year housed Venezuelans deported from the United States in his country's most notorious prison, released a photograph released by the United States on Saturday of a blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro.
Meanwhile, Uruguay's Foreign Ministry said it rejected “military intervention by one country on the territory of another.”
The actions in Venezuela caused a worldwide outcry.
Beijing, which has sought to expand its influence in Latin America in recent decades, said in a statement that “China is deeply appalled and strongly condemns the US's flagrant use of force against a sovereign state and its actions against its president.”
Iran, whose leaders are concerned that it is in the crosshairs of a similar US operation, said the actions in Venezuela “represent a serious violation of regional and international peace and security.”
“Its consequences affect the entire international system,” the statement said.
