US Releases Video Showing Arrested Maduro in Cuffs During Perp Walk

Maduro is set to be transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in New York City, according to CNN. The facility has been described as having “horrifying” and “disgusting” conditions, with a reputation for squalor, chronic understaffing, inmate violence, and power outages.

Built in the 1990s to address prison overcrowding, MDC has previously housed several high-profile detainees, including singer R Kelly, “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, former cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried, and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. Suspected cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia was also held there while awaiting trial on murder and drug trafficking charges, CNN reported.

Hours after Maduro and his wife were abducted, Venezuela’s opposition was seen celebrating.

President Donald Trump later expressed a lack of confidence in opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a former deputy of Venezuela’s National Assembly, and suggested he would instead partner with Maduro loyalist and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Machado had earlier called for the immediate installation of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president. Most Western governments regard Gonzalez as the legitimate winner of Venezuela’s contested 2024 presidential election, according to CNN.

At a press conference, Trump was asked whether Machado would play any role in a post-Maduro government. He said he had not been in contact with her and remarked that while she was a “very nice woman,” she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Supreme Court has ordered Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to assume the powers and duties of acting president after the United States removed Nicolas Maduro.

The order was announced late Saturday local time, stating that Maduro is in a “material and temporary impossibility to exercise his functions.”