(NewsNation) — The U.S. arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was a legitimate law enforcement operation against an indicted criminal, not regime change, Deputy U.S. Representative to the United Nations Tammy Bruce said Monday as international criticism mounted.
“This is a dynamic where they had an election in 2024, that he lost handily,” Bruce told NewsNation, defending the weekend raid that captured Maduro and his wife. “It was a legal action. It was a law enforcement action to deal with a man who had been under indictment for quite some time.”
Bruce emphasized the operation was “not us going into a country and making the decisions and changing things up,” just the arrest of two indicted individuals.
“The first people who will benefit from having a nation that is welcomed back into the civilized world are the people of Venezuela, and as a result, the people of the United States, as well,” Bruce said when asked about critics who say the operation was about oil after President Donald Trump mentioned the resource 20 times in a news conference.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon in a New York courtroom to charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as weapons offenses. The couple is being held at a Brooklyn detention facility.
The pre-dawn Saturday raid involved 150 aircraft from 20 bases and special forces who captured the pair at their residence. A CIA informant within the Venezuelan government provided real-time tracking of Maduro’s location, NewsNation confirmed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces caught Maduro off guard despite signs of imminent military action.
“He didn’t know they were coming till three minutes before they arrived,” Hegseth said.
At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that “rules of international law have not been respected.” However, more than 50 governments never recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader following the 2024 election.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz defended the operation, questioning what kind of organization the U.N. would be if it “confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist.”
Bruce compared the action to the 1989 arrest of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who was also brought to the U.S. for trial on drug charges.
Trump had offered Maduro exile in Turkey before the operation, officials said. Maduro declined.
Top officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hegseth were briefing the Senate and House intelligence leadership Monday evening on Capitol Hill. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have raised questions about the operation’s legality.