Venezuela’s opposition has been sidelined after Nicolás Maduro was seized by U.S. forces and put in jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, leaving leaders of his administration in control, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. allowed Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to assume control, a move that came despite opposition supporters’ long hope that Maduro would be removed from power.
The AP said most opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, are in exile or prison. It reported that U.S. forces seized Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores in a military operation Saturday, removing them from their home on a military base in Caracas. Hours later, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela, and he expressed skepticism that Machado could lead the country.
In the AP report, Trump is quoted saying, “She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country,” and adding, “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.” David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, told AP that the Trump administration’s stance reflected a lack of interest in what he described as the opposition’s “ethereal magical realism,” about how “if they just gave Maduro a push,” change would arrive immediately.
The AP reported that Machado’s approach toward the U.S. has cost her some support at home. It said her ongoing praise for Trump—she dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to him, and she backed U.S. campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and to attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters—has reduced her standing among some Venezuelans.
The AP also traced the opposition’s current position to the 2024 presidential campaign. It said Maduro’s government barred Machado from running to prevent her from challenging—and likely beating—him, and that she chose retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her on the ballot. The AP reported that ruling-party officials declared Maduro the winner mere hours after polls closed, while Machado’s campaign collected detailed tally sheets showing González defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin. It said the U.S. and other nations recognized González as the legitimate winner, but that Venezuelans identify Machado—not González—as the winner and that Machado has remained the voice of the campaign.
In her first televised interview since Maduro’s capture, AP reported that Machado praised Trump and did not address his snub of her opposition movement in the transition of power. The AP quoted her telling Fox News on Monday, “I spoke with President Trump on Oct. 10, the same day the prize was announced, not since then,” and she said, “What he has done as I said is historic, and it’s a huge step toward a democratic transition.”
The AP reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to walk back Trump’s “run” characterization. In interviews, Rubio said Washington would use control of Venezuela’s oil industry to force policy changes and called the current government illegitimate. The AP said neither Trump nor Rodríguez said when, or if, elections might take place in Venezuela, even as Venezuela is described as having the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.
The AP said Venezuela’s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever a president becomes “permanently unavailable” to serve, including in cases of death, resignation, removal from office or “abandonment” of duties as declared by the National Assembly. It added that the timeline was followed when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, died of cancer in 2013. It reported that on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally who traveled with Trump on Air Force One on Sunday, said he believes an election will happen but did not specify when or how. Graham told reporters, “We’re going to build the country up – infrastructure wise – crescendoing with an election that will be free,” according to AP.
Maduro loyalists in Venezuela’s high court, AP said, declared Maduro’s absence “temporary,” arguing another constitutional provision applies, which removes the election requirement. Under that interpretation, the AP reported, the vice president takes over for up to 90 days, with an option to extend to six months if the National Assembly—controlled by the ruling party—approves. The AP reported that speculation has followed because the Supreme Court ruling made no mention of a 180-day limit, raising questions about whether Rodríguez could try to remain in power while ruling party factions are united.
The AP said Machado criticized Rodríguez on Monday, calling her “one the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking … certainly not an individual that can be trusted by international investors.” Even if an election occurs, the AP reported that Machado and González would first need to find a way back into Venezuela. It said González has been in exile in Spain since September 2024 and that Machado left Venezuela last month after appearing in public for the first time in 11 months to receive her Nobel Prize in Norway.
Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia’s Universidad del Rosario, told AP that the Trump administration’s decision to work with Rodríguez could harm the nation’s “democratic spirit.” He said, “What the opposition did in the 2024 election was to unite with a desire to transform the situation in Venezuela through democratic means, and that is embodied by María Corina Machado and, obviously, Edmundo González Urrutia,” and added, “To disregard that is to belittle, almost to humiliate, Venezuelans.”