NEW YORK
\nCity Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he personally called President Donald Trump to object to what he described as a \u201cpursuit of regime change\u201d in Venezuela, following the overnight capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
\nPresident Trump announced on Saturday that he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
\n\u201cWe will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. \u201cWe can\u2019t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn\u2019t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.\u201d
\nTrump also said as part of the takeover, major US oil companies would move into Venezuela, which has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves, and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure, a process experts said could take years. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Mamdani said he had contacted Trump \u201cdirectly\u201d to make his position clear.
\n\u201cI called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,\u201d he said. Mamdani said his objection was based on opposition to a \u201cpursuit of regime change\u201d and actions he believes go against federal and international law, which he said should be applied consistently. \u2018It is about oil\u2019
\nMeanwhile, reacting to the development, former US vice president Kamala Harris said that President Trump\u2019s actions did not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable\u201d.
\n\u201dThat Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We\u2019ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price,\u201d Harris said in a post on X.
\n\u201cThe American people do not want this, and they are tired of being lied to. This is not about drugs or democracy. It is about oil,\u201d the ex-president remarked. Earlier, the mayor described the US military operation that led to Maduro\u2019s capture as \u201can act of war\u201d and a \u201cblatant pursuit of regime change.\u201d
\nIn a post on X, Mamdani said he had been briefed on the operation and on plans to detain Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in federal custody in New York City.\u201dUnilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,\u201d he said, warning that the move marked a dangerous escalation in US foreign policy.
\nMamdani said the fallout from the operation would not be limited to Venezuela and could directly affect tens of thousands of Venezuelans living in New York.\u201dMy focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker,\u201d he said, adding that his administration would keep monitoring the situation and issue guidance if needed.
\nHis comments came after President Trump announced that US forces had carried out a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d in Venezuela, resulting in the capture of Maduro and his wife. Trump later said the pair were being flown to New York to face federal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he personally called President Donald Trump to object to what he described as a \u201cpursuit of regime change\u201d in Venezuela, following the overnight capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. President Trump announced on Saturday that he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-523861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n