Maduro to appear in U.S. court, Trump threatens other nations

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from what prosecutors said was his role in a scheme to import "thousands of tons" of cocaine into the United States and enrich himself, his family and senior members of the Venezuelan government.

The indictment was unsealed Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into military custody in an overnight operation and brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges. 

"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," Bondi said.

Maduro, Flores and four others are named as defendants in the indictment, including Maduro's son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro.

Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machineguns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices.

Flores is accused of brokering a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela's National Anti-Drug Office and allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

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Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, President Trump said he has not spoken directly with Venezuela's acting leader, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, but said she was cooperating with the U.S.

"We're in charge" of Venezuela right now, Mr. Trump said, 

He said the U.S. had been prepared for further military action in Venezuela but it hadn't been needed so far, adding that this could change "if they don't behave."

The president said he's spoken with several U.S. oil companies about commitments to rebuilding Venezuela's infrastructure, saying they "wanna go in so bad." 

Following the action in Venezuela, the Trump administration is alluding to possible action elsewhere in the region.

In remarks aboard Air Force One Sunday night, Mr. Trump mentioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, saying Colombia is "very sick too, run by a very sick man."

Mr. Trump said he felt Petro is "not going to be doing it for very long," and when asked if he would carry out a military operation there as well, the president responded, "Sounds good to me."

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government, a longtime U.S. adversary and one of Venezuela's most important allies and trading partners. Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he thinks "they're in a lot of trouble."

"I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard," Rubio said. "But I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro."

He said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

"It was Cubans that guarded Maduro," Rubio said. "He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards," adding that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of "internal intelligence" in Maduro's government.

The Cuban government said Sunday that 32 Cubans were killed during the U.S. military operation to capture Maduro.

Mr. Trump said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

"It's going down," Mr. Trump said of Cuba. "It's going down for the count."

-CBS/AP

"That's enough now," Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said on social media late Sunday after repeated threats from President Trump to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

"No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law," Nielsen wrote.

Since returning to White House a year ago, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that making Greenland part of the United States would serve U.S. national security interests, given its strategic location in the Arctic. Greenland is also rich in key critical minerals used in high-tech sectors.

In an interview with The Atlantic magazine published Sunday, Mr. Trump reiterated his wish to take over Greenland. "We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense," he told the magazine.

Sunday night aboard Air Force One, he told reporters, "It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place." 

"We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it," he said.

-CBS/AFP

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is serving as acting leader following President Nicolás Maduro's capture, said in a statement Sunday night that Venezuela seeks "peace and peaceful coexistence."

"Our country aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international cooperation," Rodriguez said. "We believe that global peace is built by guaranteeing the peace of each nation first."

Rogriguez said she hopes to have a "balanced and respectful" relationship with the U.S. "based on sovereign equality and non-interference."

Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez speaking in Caracas on Nov. 5, 2024. JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images

"We extend the invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperation agenda, oriented to shared development, within the framework of international legality and strengthen a lasting community coexistence," she added.

"President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war."

Trump administration officials will give some members of Congress a classified briefing on Venezuela at 5:30 p.m. Monday, according to multiple sources. 

Those invited include chairs and ranking members from the Senate Foreign Relations, Senate Armed Services, House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services committees, as well as the so-called Gang of Eight — the chair and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the four leaders of the House and Senate. 

The briefing is set to be delivered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, according to an administration official. 

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being held in different sections of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal facility with the capacity for holding high-security defendants. 

MDC is known for having housed other high-profile defendants including Luigi Mangione, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that Maduro is being held on one of the top floors of MDC. They say he is not being held in isolation, but is being held with other higher profile inmates.

His status likely means protection from the general population, said Marc Fernich, an attorney who represented notorious drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who was held at a federal jail a few miles away in Manhattan. 

"If Maduro is placed in round-the-clock solitary, it will be for his own protection or to guard against suicide," Fernich said.

He added that the Brooklyn jail currently houses many members of Venezuela's most well-known transnational gang, Tren de Aragua.

There are at least four detained Americans being held in Venezuela, according to a hostage advocate familiar with the situation. The U.S. government is aware that some Americans who had been detained in Venezuela prior to the holidays remain in custody there.

Asked on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" about reports of previously detained Americans still being held in Venezuela, Sen. Chris Van Hollen said, "I've not gotten an update from the administration on those detained Americans. But certainly, my view is we should work to bring back every American who is wrongfully detained overseas."

He added: "My view is that the administration should designate as wrongfully detained any Americans that the Venezuelan Government has seized wrongfully."

President Trump on Saturday called Maduro an "illegitimate dictator" and alleged he "was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States." 

In a U.S. military operation that struck Venezuelan military facilities in the early hours of Saturday, Maduro and his wife were captured and flown to the U.S. to face charges. 

Venezuela's captured President Nicolás Maduro stands next to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrator Terry Cole as he is led in custody after landing at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, Jan. 3, 2026.  Handout via REUTERS

Mr. Trump said, "Now, Maduro will never again be able to threaten an American citizen or anybody from Venezuela."

"The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone in Venezuela," the president said. "People are free."