What Happens Next in Venezuela—and the Rest of Latin America?
SOURCE:Wired|BY:Fernanda González
Donald Trump says that Venezuela’s governance will remain in the hands of senior US officials until a “proper and judicious transition” can take place. The rest of the region is on notice.
Venezuela will remain under US control following the arrest of Nicolás Maduro. That was Donald Trump's message during a press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago compound after US forces launched an offensive against various military targets in Venezuela early Saturday morning. The operation culminated in Maduro's capture.
In the briefing, Trump stressed that his administration will not allow someone “that does not have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind” to take control of the country. “We have had decades of that. We are not going to let that happen,” he said. “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
Trump explained that the leadership of Venezuela will be in the hands of high-ranking US officials, including secretary of state Marco Rubio and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth.
At the same time, María Corina Machado, considered the main leader of the opposition to Maduro and Hugo Chávez and recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, issued a statement in which she said that opposition party figure Edmundo González Urrutia must immediately assume the presidency of the country.
“This is the time of the citizens. Of those of us who risked everything for democracy on July 28 [2024, the date of the last Venezuelan presidential election]. Of those of us who elected Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate president of Venezuela, who must immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces by all the officers and soldiers who are part of it. Today we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,” the statement says.
The text was republished by Gonzalez Urrutia himself, who made a direct appeal to the Venezuelan population: “Venezuelans, these are decisive hours. Know that we are ready for the great operation of reconstruction of our nation.”
Trump appears to have other ideas. At Saturday's press conference, he indicated that his administration has plans to rebuild the Venezuelan oil infrastructure and recover the oil that, according to the president, was “stolen” from the United States several decades ago.
“Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets, and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars,” Trump claimed. “We are going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure … and start making money for the country.”
Trump's statements mainly refer to the expropriation process promoted by the Venezuelan government in 2007, during the presidency of Hugo Chávez, when numerous foreign companies from different sectors—especially those linked to energy, oil, and gas—were nationalized.
Over the years, this policy has hampered the development of the Venezuelan oil industry, despite the country's widely recognized economic potential in this sector. Venezuela has the world's largest crude oil reserves, estimated at over 300 billion barrels yet to be extracted. However, a significant portion of this oil is located in offshore fields or deep underground deposits and consists of heavy and extra-heavy crude, making its extraction technically complex and financially costly for state-owned companies.
Currently, the country produces around 1 million barrels per day, a figure far lower than the nearly 3.5 million barrels it reached in the late 1990s, when it was among the world's leading producers.
Maduro’s Arrest and the “Donroe” Doctrine
Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained during the Saturday briefing that the mission to capture Maduro was called Operation Absolute Resolve. The operation involved the deployment of more than 150 aircraft that took off from 20 land and sea bases. Caine stated that the undertaking was “discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2, and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal.”
Trump, for his part, asserted that the US military is prepared to launch a second, more far-reaching attack if necessary. However, he acknowledged that “the first attack was so successful, we probably do not need to do a second, but we are prepared for a second wave.”
The president also affirmed that Maduro and his wife will be tried in the United States. He alleged that the former Venezuelan president was “the kingpin of a criminal network resopnsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly illicit drugs into the United States.” He added that Maduro's actions represented “a gross violation of the principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries … all the way back to the Monroe Doctrine … They now call it the Donroe Doctrine, I don't know.”
A firefighter walks past a burning military vehicle at La Carlota Air Base in Caracas on January 3, 2026, after the attack by US forces.Photo: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
Implications for Latin America
Late last year, the Trump administration presented its National Security Strategy, designed to facilitate the United States expanding its military presence and influence in the region with an aim to “restore US preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Monroe Doctrine was formulated in 1823 under the slogan “America for the Americans,” which served as the basis for Washington's political and military intervention in Latin America in response to situations considered a threat to its national security. The original objective was to prevent any attempt at colonization or interference by European powers on the continent.
This premise was taken up by the Trump administration under a new approach, dubbed the Donroe Doctrine, which seeks to reaffirm US influence in Latin America with the intention of guaranteeing US security. The current National Security Strategy states that the US “must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity—a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region.”
The document emphasizes the need to prevent non-hemispheric competitors, such as China or Russia, from having the ability to “position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our hemisphere.”
To achieve this goal, the United States will strengthen its diplomatic relations with regional allies in order to control illegal migration, curb the advance of drug trafficking, and strengthen land and sea security—problems that, according to the Trump administration, largely originate in Latin America.
Venezuelans living in Chile celebrate in Santiago on January 3, 2026, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces.Javier Torres/ AFP/Getty Images
"These nations would help us stop illegal and destabilizing migration, neutralize cartels, nearshore manufacturing, and develop local private economies, among other things," the text specifies.
The strategy also sets objectives related to the presence of US armed forces in Latin America. Key areas of action include readjusting the military presence to address urgent threats in the Western hemisphere; increasing the deployment of the Coast Guard and Navy to control key maritime routes; using military forces to secure the border and confront cartels, including through lethal force; and expanding access to locations considered strategic.
The objective of the new approach, defined by the White House as “the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” is clear: to guarantee a hemisphere stable enough to discourage mass migration to the United States, ensure regional cooperation against transnational criminal organizations, prevent hostile foreign incursions, and maintain access to strategic assets and locations.
“Venezuela has become the laboratory for the new US security strategy,” says Luz Mely Reyes, a Venezuelan journalist and general director of the digital media outlet Efecto Cocuyo. “It is an experiment based on the economic control that the United States exerts over the region.”
Are Mexico and Colombia in US Crosshairs?
For now, Venezuela has become the primary target of this strategy. However, given the recurring threats of trade sanctions, hints of potential military attacks, and political pressure on countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, analysts warn that it may only be a matter of time before this approach extends to other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
These concerns intensified after Maduro's arrest. In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump claimed that the offensive in Venezuela was not intended to send a direct message to other governments, such as Mexico's. However, he noted that, despite his good relationship with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, it is necessary to take measures to restrict the influence of drug cartels in Mexico.
“She's not running Mexico, the cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said. “We have to do something, because we lost 300,000 people, in my opinion … to drugs. They come in mostly through the southern border … Something's going to have to be done with Mexico.”
In a similar vein, the US president issued a warning to Colombian president Gustavo Petro, who has criticized Washington's recent military actions. “He's making cocaine and they're sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass,” Trump said during his Mar-a-Lago press conference.
This story originally appeared inWIRED en Españoland has been translated from Spanish.
