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  • How Trump’s foreign intervention could shake up the midterm elections

    How Trump’s foreign intervention could shake up the midterm elections

    President Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela will test Americans’ appetite for regime change, inserting a new and unpredictable element ahead of midterm elections this year that have so far been dominated by domestic issues.

    Democrats immediately began arguing that overnight action on Saturday was an abandonment of Trump’s promise to focus on improving lives at home, while many Republicans insisted it was an expansion, rather than a shift, in Trump’s “America First” mantra.

    Trump on Saturday said the United States had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and planned to “run the country” during a transition period, an action Trump cast as part of a new era of “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.” The president touted the operation as a boost to U.S. interests: a blow to the drug trade, an opportunity for American oil companies, and a show of strength.

    But his argument drew skepticism on both the right and the left, as critics warned against dragging the U.S. into regime change and costly wars. Recent polls suggest there is significant political risk for Trump, who is already facing discord within his base. A CBS News poll in November found that 70% of Americans opposed U.S. military action in Venezuela and that the vast majority did not view the South American country as a major threat to national security. Americans in both parties have grown increasingly skeptical of foreign intervention in recent decades.

    Republican leaders mostly backed the president, but some expressed doubts as Trump outlined a potentially expansive U.S. role in Venezuela and said he is “not afraid of boots on the ground.” Many Democrats framed the attack as a violation of Trump’s campaign promises to “get rid of all these wars starting all over the place” and to avoid the type of foreign entanglements that bedeviled many of his predecessors and bred cynicism within his base.

    While foreign policy does not always play a central role in domestic elections, it often informs broader opinions about competence and focus. President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan undermined his argument that he was restoring faith and effectiveness in government that had been hampered by the COVID-19 epidemic. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq with faulty intelligence claims, and the attempts at nation-building that followed, damaged his party’s credibility and helped pave the way for Trump’s takeover of the GOP.

    “What Americans want is an American president that’s going to care about them … and I think what this shows is the president’s more concerned about what’s going on in Venezuela, what’s going on in Argentina than he is on what’s going on in Pennsylvania and Ohio,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) in an interview.

    The politics of the intervention are hard to assess immediately, some strategists said, as details of the U.S.’s plans remain unclear and the situation in Venezuela is still unfolding. The issue’s relevance to voters could change based on the ultimate extent of the U.S.’s involvement and Venezuela’s stability in the months to come. Trump on Saturday said Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, appeared “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great,” but she later criticized the U.S.’s actions as “barbarity.”

    Trump had been ramping up pressure on Maduro for months, but the action in Venezuela probably caught many Americans off guard, given that it did not follow a provocation like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    Republicans embracing his latest action in Venezuela are betting that the fallout there will be limited, and even some staunch critics of foreign intervention on the right declined to criticize Trump on Saturday. But a few echoed the concerns from Democrats.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), a proponent of America First policies who has become one of Trump’s biggest critics from the right, questioned his justifications for the attack — noting that the fentanyl responsible for most U.S. drug deaths comes primarily from places other than Venezuela — and reiterated her worry that he is veering from principles on which he campaigned.

    “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” she wrote on X. “Boy were we wrong.”

    Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), who has long been at odds with Trump, said the president, at his news conference, had undercut earlier suggestions from administration officials that the action in Venezuela was a limited effort to apprehend Maduro. Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump adviser turned MAGA commentator, initially hailed Maduro’s capture as a “stunning overnight achievement” on his show — but after Trump’s news conference expanding on the U.S. role in Venezuela, he wondered if the plan would “hark back to our fiasco in Iraq under Bush.”

    Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.) called the Venezuela operation “successful” but added in a statement online, “We still need more answers, especially to questions regarding the next steps in Venezuela’s transition.”

    Other Republicans echoed Trump’s points about U.S. interests in the region. Raheem Kassam, a political strategist who is editor of the conservative National Pulse, suggested Trump’s MAGA base will “warm” to the idea that the Venezuela action is America First and noted that many supporters also embraced Trump’s long-shot ambitions to annex Greenland.

    Kassam doesn’t see the issue playing into the midterms much yet — but “if it turns into a disaster, certainly.”

    “These things are very risky,” he acknowledged. Trump “will know what risk he’s taking and people know what it means if Caracas suddenly overnight turns into a complete powder keg.”

    Some Republicans were skeptical that the U.S. would be as involved as Trump suggested Saturday was possible. “The president gets a lot of leeway up to a certain point,” said GOP strategist David Urban, “and I think that point would be, having U.S. soldiers in some meaningful capacity in Venezuela. I don’t think you’ll see that.”

    Democrats, meanwhile, questioned the legality of the military action in Venezuela. Some also sought to use it to build their longtime case that Trump is distracted from the issues that matter most to voters.

    “The American people don’t want to ‘run’ a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one,” wrote Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary and potential Democratic 2028 presidential candidate, on social media, arguing that Trump was “failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home.”

    Buoyed by victories in November’s elections in New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats are focusing intensely on the issue of affordability heading into the 2026 midterms. Trump’s advisers signaled after those elections that they would be refocusing on the economy, and Trump began to tout his economic achievements at rallies. Now, many Democrats say the operation in Venezuela could undercut that effort.

    “His biggest problem is that costs are continuing to go up, and he promised people they would go down, and whenever people see him creating some other kind of a problem, rather than buckling down and trying to un-break that key promise, they turn against him more,” argued Andrew Bates, a Democratic strategist and former White House communications official under Biden.

    Whit Ayres, a longtime GOP pollster, emphasized that it’s hard to predict the politics of Trump’s actions in Venezuela without more data.

    “What I can say based upon polling is that one of Trump’s strengths in public opinion polls is that he’s viewed as strong, and not indecisive or weak, and in that sense this plays to his strength,” he said of the Venezuela operation.

  • Bucks County agrees to pay nearly $1 million to a woman who was pepper-sprayed and restrained in jail

    Bucks County agrees to pay nearly $1 million to a woman who was pepper-sprayed and restrained in jail

    Bucks County has agreed to pay $950,000 to a woman with a serious mental illness who was pepper-sprayed and left strapped for hours in a chair while at Bucks County Correctional Facility over five years ago.

    Kimberly Stringer’s parents hope the settlement draws attention to the country’s ongoing mental health crisis, and the need for alternatives to arresting and jailing people who need psychiatric care.

    Martha and Paul Stringer of Lower Makefield Township sued Bucks County prison guards and officials in 2022, asserting that their daughter’s civil rights were violated while she was jailed for 64 days during the spring and summer of 2020.

    Martha Stringer has since become an advocate for programs to keep people with serious mental illnesses out of jails. She said that, along with the settlement, the county agreed to work to implement one such program. Known as assisted outpatient treatment, it involves regular court appearances and close supervision for people with a history of hospitalizations who struggle to follow treatment plans.

    “My only hope would be that this story resonates beyond Bucks County,” because county jails all around the country are frequently where people with mental health issues end up, she said.

    By April 2020, her 27-year old daughter already had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features and had been involuntarily committed twice, Martha Stringer said.

    “She was well known, particularly in Falls Township, where she was arrested,” Martha Stringer said.

    It was then, while in the midst of a rapidly worsening mental health crisis, that Kimberly Stringer struck and threatened her neighbor, according to the Stringers’ attorney, David Inscho. She was arrested and taken to Bucks County Correctional Facility, where, as a pretrial detainee, she was pepper-sprayed twice by prison guards, Inscho said.

    Stringer was also placed in a “restraint chair,” which prohibits movement, several times, for as long as four hours, Inscho said. At no point did she pose a threat to guards, and her inability to comply with orders was because she was “in a state of catatonia.”

    “In that state she was not able to process and comply with the rules of that correctional facility — and that led to uses of force” by prison guards, Inscho said.

    The settlement agreement between the Stringers and Bucks County, which was reached Dec. 17, includes a requirement that video footage of the incidents recorded by prison guards be destroyed. The agreement notes one remaining copy of the videos may be kept in a password-protected file for 10 years and then deleted.

    Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia during a meeting on May 21, 2024.

    “The videos were difficult to watch,” Inscho said. “It was clear that Kim was in a mental health crisis. The tools available to the guards were clearly not the tools Kim needed.”

    Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said she believes prison guards were trying to keep Stringer safe, but she shouldn’t have been in jail to begin with.

    “She and the millions of Americans who likewise struggle with mental illness deserve access to high-quality, intensive treatment, with intervention that begins long before they are misdirected to the criminal justice system,” Ellis-Marseglia said in a statement.

    Ellis-Marseglia said that Bucks County has made strides in helping people with serious mental illness. In 2023, the board of commissioners voted unanimously to fund a behavioral health center in Doylestown, the Lenape Valley Foundation’s Bright Path Center, Ellis-Marseglia noted. Last August, commissioners voted to add $5 million more to fund the facility, a county spokesperson said.

    Bucks County in 2023 also voted to build a Diversion Assessment Restoration and Treatment Center at the jail, which is set to open this year, the spokesperson said, and in 2021, it added a separate housing area for women and a mental health unit in the jail.

    “These programs and facilities will help bridge critical gaps in mental health services and move us in the direction of improving the mental health treatment environment,” Ellis-Marseglia said.

    Martha Stringer, parent of Kim Stringer, at her home in Yardley. When Kim Stringer was having an acute psychotic episode, local police charged her with harassment and placed her in the Bucks County jail. Her parents sued in 2022, and have become advocates for prison reform after their daughter’s mistreatment.

    The Stringers applauded these changes, which they attributed in part to the public outcry over their daughter’s mistreatment. Their daughter’s story became public after several inmates notified the media of Kimberly Stringer’s condition in jail; days later, the county relocated her to a state mental institution.

    Still, Martha Stringer said, most of Bucks County’s new interventions are for people who have already been arrested.

    “And that’s where we’re going to come to the table with Bucks, to see if we can implement assisted outpatient treatment,” Martha Stringer said.

    The money from the settlement will go into a special needs trust that the parents set up years ago, Paul Stringer said. The trust has strict rules on what money can be spent on, and is designed to provide for their daughter even after he and his wife, both in their 60s, have died.

    “She’s doing quite well,” Paul Stringer said. “But she requires, probably, a lifetime of supports.”

    Their now-33-year-old daughter is living in Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital under a long-term involuntary commitment, Martha Stringer said. Their hope is that she’ll be able to move to a less-restrictive setting and gain more independence, while still getting the support she needs.

    “These past five years, she’s missed a lot,” Martha Stringer said. “She’s missed her sister’s wedding. Recently she’s become an aunt. She’s missed a lot. We struggled with that.”

    One thing that’s given some comfort, she added, is that people often reach out for advice on how they can help their children, who are in similar situations.

    “I learned so much the hard way, that I felt like, if I could give families a better understanding of what we learned, then I could help them.”

  • South Jersey man fatally shot woman, wounded minor, then called 911, police say

    South Jersey man fatally shot woman, wounded minor, then called 911, police say

    A 40-year-old man has been charged by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office with the shooting death of a woman Saturday morning in Paulsboro.

    Authorities say Ramon Luis Acevedo of Paulsboro shot the woman in the head while she was at a home on Elizabeth Avenue. They say he also shot a minor who fled.

    Acevedo was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree aggravated assault after the prosecutor’s office said he called 911 on Saturday. During the call, authorities allege, Acevedo identified himself and said he shot both people.

    Police found an adult female dead in a bedroom at the home. The minor received medical treatment for a gunshot wound.

    Acevedo said in a statement to police that he intentionally shot the woman, according to the prosecutor’s office. He then accidentally shot the second person after being startled while holding a handgun, according to the statement.

    Neither victim has been identified by the authorities.

    Acevedo faces a sentence of 30 years to life for the charge of first-degree murder, 5 to 10 years for second-degree aggravated assault, and 5 to 10 years for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

  • Maduro, wife to face drug charges, court appearance in coming days

    Maduro, wife to face drug charges, court appearance in coming days

    Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife could appear in federal court in Manhattan within days to face narco-terrorism charges, which, if accepted by a jury, could put them behind bars on American soil for decades.

    A plane carrying Maduro arrived at a suburban airport outside New York on Saturday evening. He was expected to be processed by Drug Enforcement Administration officials and will be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until a court appearance, most likely on Monday, according to people familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

    Maduro’s capture and indictment have drawn protests from some lawmakers and scholars, who say international law does not allow President Donald Trump to unilaterally attack a foreign country and bring its leader to the U.S. to face charges.

    Even those critics, however, concede that under Supreme Court precedent, those arguments are unlikely to have much impact on federal legal proceedings once Maduro gets to U.S. court.

    Trump and his top aides defended the decision to capture Maduro. They noted that the U.S. and many other countries have long viewed Maduro as an illegitimate leader who has remained in power despite losing the country’s most recent election. Officials sought to portray the extraordinary military action against Venezuela as a straightforward law enforcement operation, with the military backing up the Justice Department as they sought to bring someone to U.S. court.

    “At its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a news conference with Trump on Saturday.

    A sweeping four-count indictment against Maduro was unsealed in the Southern District of New York on Saturday. It alleged that he, his wife, Cilia Flores, and members of their inner circle illegally enriched themselves as they conspired to flood the United States with cocaine. Among the charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.

    “The defendants, and other corrupt members of the regime facilitated the empowerment and growth of violent narco-terrorist groups fueling their organizations with cocaine profits,” the indictment reads. “These narco-terrorist organizations not only worked directly with and sent profits to high-ranking Venezuelan officials, but also reaped the benefits of the increased value of that cocaine at each transshipment point along the way to the United States, where demand and thus the price of cocaine is highest.”

    The remarkable prosecution of a foreign leader in American federal court was the result of Trump’s deployment of the U.S. military to strike Venezuela overnight and capture Maduro and his wife, bringing them to New York to face charges.

    Trump at the Saturday news conference gave reporters a more expansive set of reasons for Maduro’s capture, saying that the U.S. attack was justified, in part, because Venezuela stole U.S. oil — claims that are not included in the indictment. He also said the United States will “run” the South American country until a succession plan is determined.

    Critics said Trump’s arguments raised more legal questions.

    “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership?” Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement. “What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”

    International law experts, however, said that while those issues may be debated in Congress and international bodies, they are unlikely to affect the legal proceedings against Maduro and his co-defendants in U.S. court.

    A line of Supreme Court cases starting in the late 19th century makes clear that “you can’t claim that you were abducted and therefore the court should not be allowed to assert authority over you,” said Geoffrey Corn, who heads the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University and is a former top legal adviser to the U.S. Army.

    “Maduro is not going to be able to avoid being brought to trial because he was abducted so to speak, even if he can establish it violated International law.” Corn said, adding that in his view the administration’s overnight military operation lacked any “plausible legal basis.”

    Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law professor who previously headed the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the George W. Bush administration, noted on Substack that similar arguments were raised after U.S. forces deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega on Jan. 3, 1990. Courts upheld the government’s right to try Noriega, who was convicted on drug charges in 1992 and sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

    The charging document against Maduro unsealed Saturday — known as a superseding indictment — is an update to charges filed against him and his associates during the first Trump administration in 2020. At the time, U.S. leaders conceded that they couldn’t go into Venezuela and arrest Maduro. The charges essentially made him an international fugitive, who risked arrest if he traveled outside his country.

    The superseding indictment contains the same four charges as the original 2020 indictment. But the new indictment also names Flores, who was not a co-defendant in the 2020 case. Some of the other co-defendants — all part of Maduro’s inner circle — are also different, including Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro.

    The younger Maduro does not appear to have been captured.

    U.S. authorities have alleged that Maduro and his inner circle worked with international drug trafficking groups to transform Venezuela into a transshipment hub for moving massive amounts of cocaine to the United States. Maduro and his associates created a culture of corruption in which the Venezuelan elite made themselves rich through drug trafficking, the indictment alleged. Drug traffickers, the document said, gave these leaders a portion of their profits in exchange for protection and aid.

    “In turn, these politicians used the cocaine fueled payments to maintain and augment their political power,” the indictment states.

    Jeremy Paul, a law professor at Northeastern University, said the Trump administration had no legal authority to stage the military intervention, but he agreed that it probably would not derail Maduro’s prosecution.

    The administration’s justification is “a terrifying theory, because, as I have been saying to people, you’re basically saying that U.S. prosecutors and a grand jury is all you need as justification for sending the military into another country,” Paul said. “That can’t be the law.”

    Trump also faced criticism Saturday from Democratic lawmakers for striking Venezuela and capturing Maduro just a month after he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court last year on drug trafficking charges.

    Maduro’s case in the Southern District of New York was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old jurist appointed by President Bill Clinton and who last year was among a group of judges who prohibited the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan immigrants. Those findings are under appeal.

    Hellerstein did not take any action in the case against Maduro on Saturday, and an appearance in court has not yet been publicly announced. But public officials, including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have said that officials are arranging this weekend to transport Maduro and his wife to New York.

  • China condemns U.S. strike in Venezuela after top diplomat met with Maduro

    China condemns U.S. strike in Venezuela after top diplomat met with Maduro

    China strongly condemned the overnight U.S. strike on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, which came just hours after a Chinese special envoy met with the Venezuelan leader to reaffirm Beijing’s support for the imperiled regime, calling the action “deeply shocking” and a serious violation of international law.

    Shortly before the surprise U.S. attack unfolded, a delegation of Chinese officials arrived in Caracas, led by Beijing’s special envoy for Latin American and Caribbean affairs, Qiu Xiaoqi, and met with Maduro to discuss the rising tensions with the United States. It was Maduro’s last publicly reported official meeting before he and his wife were captured by U.S. forces and flown out of the country.

    President Donald Trump on Saturday said that the United States will now “run” Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, following the operation that saw over 150 U.S. military aircraft marshal for a spectacular extraction mission.

    Maduro’s exit marked an abrupt end to a monthslong effort by China to support the embattled leader, as fears grew in Beijing that the United States would soon attempt to seize Chinese-flagged oil tankers as part of its blockade of the country. Beijing has been the regime’s most influential global ally and Venezuela’s primary financial lifeline through loans and oil purchases, accounting for around 80% of the country’s total oil exports.

    At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Maduro shared a final message on his Telegram channel, lauding his meeting with Qiu as reaffirming “the strong bonds of brotherhood and friendship between China and Venezuela. A relationship that stands the test of time!” It was accompanied by a video set to triumphant music showing Qiu — a vice-minister level diplomat — and his team walking through what appeared to be the hallways of the presidential palace and shaking hands with Maduro.

    Just 6½ hours later, Chinese officials in Caracas were stunned when the U.S. strike began, setting off a furious string of missives back to Beijing, according to one Chinese diplomat familiar with the situation. “It was completely shocking,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media.

    On Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a sharp rebuke, strongly condemning the U.S. raid. “Such hegemonic acts of the U.S. seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threaten peace and security in Latin America,” it said in a statement. Separately, the Foreign Ministry and China’s embassy in Venezuela warned citizens to avoid traveling to the country.

    “China employed rare, forceful language previously reserved for political assassinations and mass casualty events,” sail Neil Thomas, a fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

    According to Venezuelan reports and the Chinese official, Qiu met with Maduro to review the roughly 600 political and economic agreements between the two countries and address concerns over the rising threat of a U.S. military intervention and potential threats to Chinese oil tankers.

    Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Maduro in May last year on the sidelines of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. According to the Chinese readout of the meeting, Xi described the two countries’ relationship as an “all-weather strategic partnership” and reaffirmed China’s support for Venezuela’s sovereignty.

    Asked on Saturday how the takeover would affect U.S. relations with major oil buyers including China, Trump said that “in terms of other countries that want oil, we’re in the oil business, we’re going to sell it to them. We’re not going to say we’re not going to sell it to them.”

    China has long viewed Venezuela as a key political ally in Latin America as it seeks to expand its influence in the region. This month, Beijing released its first major Latin America strategy update in nearly a decade, more explicitly incorporating security cooperation — including military exchanges — into its framework and reaffirming support for the sovereignty of regional partners.

    Republican lawmakers focused on China policy welcomed the move Saturday, saying it curtailed Chinese influence in the region. “The Trump Administration’s decisive action against Nicolás Maduro removes a Chinese ally from power and makes the world a safer place. China’s partnership with Maduro propped up an authoritarian ruler who worked with our nation’s adversaries and hurt the American people,” said Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), chairperson of the House Select Committee on China.

    Analysts say that the potential seizure of Venezuela’s government by the United States is unlikely to seriously undercut Beijing’s broader efforts to expand its regional presence.

    “Left-leaning governments in the region will likely lean further toward Beijing as a preferred economic partner and diplomatic alternative to Washington. This strike is unlikely to dissuade China’s regional trade and investment; Beijing requires booming exports to sustain growth, and Washington currently lacks a competitive economic diplomacy strategy to match its security presence,” said Thomas.

    Trump on Saturday lambasted Maduro’s regime for facilitating the growing influence of U.S. adversaries in the region, but stopped short of naming China explicitly. “Venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten us,” said Trump. “They used those weapons last night.”

    In recent months, Maduro has called on China, as well as Russia and Iran, to provide weapons and other assistance amid rising U.S. pressure. According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, Maduro drafted a letter appealing to Xi for “expanded military cooperation” in the face of U.S. escalation, including a request to expedite the production of radar detection systems by Chinese companies.

  • Tim Walz was a Democratic hopeful. Now, he’s a Republican punching bag.

    Tim Walz was a Democratic hopeful. Now, he’s a Republican punching bag.

    MINNEAPOLIS — Just a few months ago, Larissa Laramee would have encouraged Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to run for president. She admired the man who helped lead the Democratic presidential ticket in 2024 — and who once taught her social studies.

    But Laramee’s feelings have changed as a yearslong welfare fraud probe in Minnesota becomes a national maelstrom. Prosecutors say scammers stole brazenly from safety net programs, taking hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding — potentially billions — for services they never provided while Walz led the state.

    “I like him as a person. He’s fantastic,” said Laramee, 40, who works at a Minnesota nonprofit for people with disabilities. Walz, as her high school teacher, helped inspire her career, she said. “But with all of this that’s happened, I’m struggling with seeing a path forward for him.”

    Laramee’s doubts show how the sprawling fraud cases in Minnesota now hang over Walz — even as it’s too soon to tell how they will ultimately affect his political future. A year and a half after he vaulted onto the national stage as Kamala Harris’ running mate, Walz is back in the spotlight, this time for a controversy that Republicans around the country view as political gold.

    Republicans are betting the fraud saga will hurt Walz, a staunch liberal and potential 2028 presidential candidate who is seeking a third term as governor this year. GOP officials say it will be one of their top campaign issues in Minnesota as they try to reverse many years of statewide losses and navigate through tough national headwinds in the midterms.

    But many of the attacks on Walz are geared just as much toward riling the GOP’s national base, using the issue and Walz’s prominence to validate broader anger within the party over immigration and a social welfare system that President Donald Trump and others have long argued is out of control.

    How much blame Walz should bear for the state’s response to the fraud is a matter of a debate. He has said that, as state executive, he takes ultimate responsibility. Walz has said officials have “made systematic changes to state government” over the past few years as prosecutions were underway. The governor’s critics say the changes were insufficient and came too late.

    Democrats say Republicans are risking a backlash by fixating on the fraudsters’ nationality — most people charged in the schemes are of Somali descent — and by freezing some federal childcare funding in response. Trump has lobbed broad attacks on Somali immigrants that Walz denounced as “racist lies,” and many on the right have called for deportations, even though officials say most of the fraud defendants are U.S. citizens.

    Maria Snider, director of the Rainbow Development Center and vice president of advocacy group Minnesota Child Care Association, speaks as people gather for a news conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday in St. Paul.

    Democrats are favored to win the governor’s race in 2026; Republicans have not won a statewide election in Minnesota since 2006. Walz won reelection by about 8 percentage points in 2022, when some of the fraud cases had already surfaced, and it’s not clear that the new attention to the issue has affected his approval in the state. There are no clear recent shifts in available surveys.

    Some Democrats remain worried the fallout threatens to blunt Walz’s attacks on Trump, as well as the economic issues the party has sought to highlight.

    “The anti-fraud message is going to be very strong. … I fear that message will dominate or drown out the affordability message,” said Ember Reichgott Junge, a former Minnesota state senator who is now a Democratic political analyst.

    Junge said she’s heard many Democrats express concern about Walz’s reelection campaign and noted that his performance could affect lower-profile races on the ballot. Democrats are defending a one-vote majority in the state Senate and trying to retake the House, where Republicans hold a two-seat advantage amid two vacancies.

    “He is a riskier candidate than any other Democrat” would have been, she said of Walz, who has not drawn primary challengers so far.

    Walz has accused Trump of politicizing the probes. Walz appointed a statewide “director of program integrity” to prevent fraud in mid-December, among other changes, and the state shut down one fraud-plagued housing program this fall.

    “We have made significant progress. We have much more to do. And it’s my responsibility to fix it,” Walz wrote in a recent op-ed for the Minnesota Star Tribune.

    His office did not make him available for an interview.

    Other Democrats dismissed Republicans’ chances in the governor’s race, said the GOP response to the fraud has overreached and accused Trump — who has pardoned people convicted on fraud charges — of hypocrisy. Trump and others on the right have also attacked Walz in highly personal terms that many call cruel; Trump recently called Walz “seriously retarded,” and videos of people yelling “retard” outside Walz’s house have circulated online. (Walz has spoken about his son’s learning disability).

    “Republicans are overplaying their hand, and this is what’s going to turn off a lot of voters,” said Abou Amara, a former adviser to Democratic leadership in the state legislature. “They have made this not just about fraud, but they’ve made it about xenophobia.”

    President Donald Trump on Dec. 16 at the White House.

    Federal authorities in Minnesota have been investigating the sweeping abuse of safety net programs for years and brought many of the charges in 2022, accusing 47 people of misusing $250 million — meant to feed children during the pandemic — on luxury cars and property as far away as Kenya and Turkey.

    News reports, a viral video and a flood of criticism from right-wing influencers and politicians have drawn new national attention to the issue in recent weeks. Federal investigators also suggested last month that the problem could be much bigger than previously known.

    Joe Thompson, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, said at a news conference last month that authorities have identified “significant fraud” in 14 state Medicaid programs — and said fraud may account for more than half of the $18 billion that went to those programs since 2018.

    “Every day we look under a rock and find a new $50 million fraud scheme,” Thompson said.

    Republican leaders including Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) have weighed in this past week, sharing a video posted on social media on Dec. 26 by a 23-year-old YouTuber, Nick Shirley, who joined a roundtable with Trump last year. In the 42-minute video, Shirley claimed daycare centers were not caring for children because he could not see them on-site. Regulators, however, saw children on their visits within the last 10 months, according to officials and records.

    Shirley’s video has accumulated more than 130 million views on X and triggered a flood of GOP interest — and criticism of Walz. House Republicans said they would call Walz to testify before Congress next month. Right-leaning billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, suggested Walz should go to prison.

    “Minnesotans are finally much more aware of the extent of the fraud and how deep it is and how it’s gone unchecked, and it is going to play favorably for Republicans on every level of government in the ’26 election,” said state House speaker Lisa Demuth, one of many candidates seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Walz.

    Another GOP gubernatorial candidate, Minnesota Rep. Kristin Robbins — who chairs a House committee on fraud — called it the top issue in the race. “We are still, sadly, at the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

    A 2024 report from the nonpartisan Minnesota Legislative Auditor found that the state education department, which administered nutrition programs at the center of many fraud cases, “failed to act on warning signs” and “created opportunities for fraud.” It did not point specifically at Walz.

    Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP who has crossed the aisle in the past to vote for Walz, said he isn’t sure how he’ll vote in the coming gubernatorial race, and argued that the Walz administration could have been more responsive. Voters, he said, will have to decide if state officials “have the credibility to be a part of the solution when maybe a lot of Minnesotans think they’re part of the problem.”

    But he also warned that Trump’s rhetoric isn’t helping local Republicans. The president railed against Somali immigrants in a cabinet meeting last month, saying “they contribute nothing” and declaring, “Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.”

    Some Republicans in Minnesota want to leave race out of the debate — though they argue sensitivities about racism helped enable the fraud. (A nonprofit behind much of the fraud once accused a state agency of racial discrimination while pushing back on skepticism).

    “We want to stay focused on the fraud and just the act itself, not on the culture or the people behind it,” Minnesota GOP chair Alex Plechash said in an interview, adding later, “I’m not at all into dividing the people by race or by socioeconomic status or any other way.”

    At a Somali mall in Minneapolis, Kadar Abdi, a student at a nearby mosque, said he believes Trump is trying to turn attention away from his own political challenges. “Because of these failures, as a distraction tactic, you want to blame a marginalized group” he said. “It’s as old as American society.”

    An hour away in Owatonna, an exurb of the Twin Cities, diners at the Kernel represented the full gamut of opinions. Trump voter Michael Haag, 54, said Walz “should be in prison” and that he plans to leave the state if Walz is reelected.

    He “should resign, and I also think he should be charged, because he’s for the Somalis,” Haag said. “He should have been looking out for us, vs. them.”

    Another patron wearing a pink Carhartt hat and sipping coffee disagreed.

    “I find him honest,” said Joan Trandem, who is retired. “He cares about the small guy.”

    Given the drama that’s surrounded Walz, Trandem said she’s surprised he wants to run for a third term. But if he continues with the campaign, she plans to vote for him. In the rural part of Minnesota where Trandem lives, the fraud probe doesn’t get much play anymore, she said. “I’m tired of talking about it.”

  • Philadelphia reacts to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s plan to take control of Venezuela

    Philadelphia reacts to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s plan to take control of Venezuela

    Venezuela native Gil Arends was unwinding at his South Philadelphia apartment Saturday when an X notification came through: “There’s no power in Caracas and we are hearing some explosions.” A panoramic video showed smoke rising from the capital city.

    “I was immediately scared; even with all the military, I did not think Caracas was going to get bombed,” Arends, 40, said. Then, the news came through: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was in custody.

    A U.S.military operation ousted Maduro from power early Saturday, capturing him and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple were extracted from their home on a military base and taken to New York, where they face prosecution for their alleged participation in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The dramatic ground offensive capped a monthslong pressure campaign by President Donald Trump against the Venezuelan leader.

    Trump says U.S. has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, will run the country

    Arends, who owns Puyero Venezuelan Flavor with locations in Center City and University City, left Venezuela 15 years ago. He woke up his mother, sister, and wife when he learned the news. No one could believe it.

    “Some people just began noticing the bombings in the Caribbean, but we have been living this our entire lives,” Arends said. “No one wants to see their country getting bombed, but they gave us no alternative. I am grateful for the help.”

    In the wake of the raid, Trump said the United States would “run Venezuela” until a transition of power could be arranged. Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Trump offered few details on what American intervention would look like — or how long it could take — but revealed he plans to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

    With capture of Maduro, Trump claims successful operation as he treads into uncharted territory

    The military operation and takeover Saturday elicited reactions from Philadelphia’s Venezuelan community and a cohort of area politicians who denounced Trump’s plan to run the country and capitalize off its oil reserves.

    Philadelphia Democrat U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle took to X, writing, “The American people want affordable housing and health care. The last thing they want is another costly forever war.”

    U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said in a statement that Venezuela’s future “belongs to the Venezuelan people alone.”

    “The only country that the United States of America should be ‘running’ is the United States of America,” the Bucks County Republican said.

    The legal authority for the raid on Maduro and airstrikes in Caracas were not immediately known, but area lawmakers said Trump did not seek congressional authorization to capture Maduro. Decrying the attack, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans of Philadelphia noted that the president’s chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in November that ground operations in Venezuela would require the approval of Congress.

    In a social media post, Sen. Andy Kim accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of “blatantly” lying when the administration told congressional leaders its objective was not a regime change. Kim — a New Jersey Democrat and former national security official in the Obama administration — argued the raid may further isolate the U.S. from its allies.

    “This strike doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy,” Kim wrote. “It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government.”

    Delaware Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons echoed Kim in a news release: According to Coons, senior Trump administration officials said in briefings to Congress that they were focused on combating drug trafficking.

    “President Trump put American service members in harm’s way to capture Maduro, but the president lacks a clear plan for what comes next,” Coons said. “This raid risks creating more instability in the region, putting U.S. service members and civilians in the hemisphere at risk, and dividing us further from our regional partners.”

    While condemning Trump, Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, also upbraided the Republican-led Congress for its “ongoing abdication of its constitutional duty” and choosing “spineless complicity over its sworn responsibilities.”

    Trump’s Venezuela move pushes the limits of ‘America First’

    “Again and again, the president has exceeded his authority, defied congressional intent, trampled the separation of powers, and broken the law — while Congress looked away in cowardice and submission,” Booker said in a news release. “Congress must act now. It must reassert its constitutional authority, restore the rule of law, and stop this president before further injury is done to our democracy and our republic.”

    State Sen. Nikil Saval (D., Philadelphia) called for his federal counterparts to impeach Trump.

    “Trump’s attack on Venezuela and abduction of its President are criminal acts of terror. They follow in the darkest traditions of American history: a violent, reckless flex of military power to gain control over foreign resources,” Saval posted on Instagram. “It is incumbent on every American of conscience to rise against these actions.”

    Bill Burke-White, an international lawyer and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, said the United States’ unsanctioned attack on another sovereign state opens the doors for other military superpowers to oust opposing heads of states.

    “Many countries in the world are going to look at this and say … that the United States has fundamentally abandoned the basic principles that kept us safe for the last 70 years. We’re going to be reverting to a world that looks more like regional powers that can do whatever they want,” he said, “a world governed, not by law, but by the whims of powerful autocrats in countries with nuclear weapons.”

    The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate leader of Venezuela, and Trump repeated rhetoric Saturday that Maduro had effectively exploited the nation for cocaine trafficking and criminal enterprises. American presence in waters off South America has swelled in recent months as the U.S. attacked boats allegedly carrying drugs.

    The number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115 as of Friday, according to the Trump administration. Trump has said that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as necessary to curb the flow of drugs.

    In social media posts, Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick , a Republican, and Democrat John Fetterman applauded American military personnel who carried out the mission under the cover of darkness.

    “For years Maduro’s regime killed our children by flooding America’s streets with poison, threatened our borders, and undermined U.S. national security,” McCormick wrote. “I urge what’s left of the Maduro regime to honor the will of the Venezuelan people and transition peacefully to rightfully elected leadership.”

    Demonstrators march along North Broad Street reacting to U.S. strikes on Venezuela on Saturday.

    There are about 7,000 people of Venezuelan origin in the Philly metro area, according to the latest census data, out of a total metro area Latino population of 681,000. By comparison, there are 135,000 people of Mexican origin, and 74,000 people of Dominican origin in the metro area.

    Three local Venezuelan organizations — Casa de Venezuela Philadelphia, Casa de Venezuela Delaware, and Gente de Venezuela Philadelphia — rallied for peace and unity among the diaspora.

    “In moments of heightened emotional sensitivity and rapid information circulation, we urge our community in exile to act with serenity, caution, and a sense of collective responsibility,” a joint statement read.

    A vigil for Venezuela’s future is scheduled for noon Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

    “We firmly believe that no process of change will be sustainable if built on hatred, confrontation, or suffering,” the statement said.

    After the news began to sink in, Arends, the restaurateur, checked in with his employees, asking about their family members in Caracas. Overall everyone was OK, he said, although some were startled and concerned by the bombing sounds.

    “There is so much uncertainty in every single level and we have been through so much; we have seen bad things become worse so it’s very difficult to just be happy without fearing what that might lead to,” Arends said. “I’m hopeful but it doesn’t feel like we are at the point where this is over.”

    As the first day of a post-Maduro Venezuela came to a close, Venus Lucini, 28, said she felt like there was a difference in the air.

    “There are too many emotions, too much uncertainty, but for the first time, there is possibility,” Lucini said, as she held her daughter Sofi’s hand.

    For the young mother this is a chance for younger generations to recover a sense of the future.

    “I already had to emigrate, but this is her chance to see a new Venezuela,” Lucini said, longing to visit with family members who have never seen her 6-year-old in person.

    “Can we go to Venezuela now, Mami?” Sofi asked.

    “Not yet, baby, but soon you will get to see all the places Mami grew up in,” Lucini replied.

    Graphics editor John Duchneskie and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

  • Pit bull has attacked three dogs, two owners, in Center City

    Pit bull has attacked three dogs, two owners, in Center City

    Brian Lovenduski was strolling with his leashed miniature pinscher, Ziggy, through a Center City plaza Monday evening — just another routine walk for the pair.

    “Just enjoying the Christmas lights,” said Lovenduski, who had David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs pulsing through his earbuds. “And then, before I knew it, I turned around and a pit bull had latched onto Ziggy’s leg.”

    Lovenduski recalled the horrific attack that followed at 12th and Chestnut Streets in front of dozens of bystanders. He was bitten and Ziggy was left seemingly near death — until the small dog rallied and fought back for his life against the much bigger, more powerful pit bull.

    Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said Saturday that the pit bull is believed to have been involved in a trio of attacks in Center City that took place in the week after Christmas. The pit bull is believed to be owned by a homeless person, police said.

    Owners of two victimized dogs say they have not only been traumatized by the attacks, but face tens of thousands of dollars collectively in vet bills.

    Brian Lovenduski was walking his leashed miniature pinscher, Ziggy, Monday in Center City when they were attacked by a pit bull, which is believed to have carried out two other recent attacks.

    Ziggy’s attack

    Ziggy was the second dog attacked by the pit bull.

    The 4.5-minute attack left Ziggy with a long row of stitches and an amputated leg. Lovenduski was bitten on the hand as he tried to ward off the pit bull.

    Lovenduski said he grabbed the pit bull by the collar and pulled its head to his chest to wrest him away from Ziggy. Dozens of people gathered, with some shouting instructions, but not intervening. At one point, Ziggy went limp.

    “I was worried that I’m watching my dog die in front of me, and I can’t save him,” Lovenduski said. “And then suddenly, Ziggy in his little, little, fiery body sprung back to life and started biting the pit bull on the ears, over and over and over. There was blood everywhere.”

    Lovenduski continued to strike the pit bull on the head and finally it released Ziggy. A nurse from Jefferson Hospital came and helped seek medical treatment.

    Eventually, Ziggy was treated at Philadelphia Animal Specialty & Emergency on Washington Avenue in Point Breeze.

    “He is little by little, starting to learn how to balance himself upright on three legs,” Lovenduski said of Ziggy. “I’m still in shock. But Ziggy’s will to live is inspiring me.”

    Lovenduski estimates he faces $11,000 in medical expenses, and expects that could grow. He has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for the bills.

    Ziggy, a miniature pinscher, was attacked by a pit bull while being walked by owner, Brian Lovenduski on Dec. 29, 2025. It was one of three known attacks by the pit bull.

    The attack on Stella

    The first known attack by the pit bull occurred on Dec. 26 as J. Bazzel was walking his 11-month-old sheltie Stella at Juniper and Chestnut Streets.

    Bazzel said he saw a homeless woman sitting on the corner under a blanket with a pit bull to the side. He’d seen the dog before and usually gives it “a wide berth.” He believes the woman also travels with a man.

    He crossed over Juniper, near the Wanamaker Building, and was startled to hear Stella suddenly yelp.

    “I looked down, and saw that the dog had, very quietly, ran over, grabbed Stella’s front left leg and wouldn’t let go of it. My dog was yelping and crying in pain. I started yelling for help.”

    Bazzel said a man came over and jumped on the back of the pit bull and started striking it in the head. Bazzel worked his gloved fingers into the back of the pit bull’s jaw and applied pressure until it released Stella.

    Stella, an 11-month-old sheltie, is seen here recovering from surgery after she was attacked by a pit bull Dec. 26 in Center City. Police believe the pit bull is responsible for three recent attacks.

    “The guy who was holding back the pit bull yelled at me to run,” Bazzel recalled. “And I scooped Stella up.”

    Bazzel brought the bleeding puppy to the VEG Emergency Vet center, where staff helped.

    “I had blood on me, I had excrement on me,” Bazzel said. “The folks at VEG were just amazing. They quickly got the door. They escorted me right back. They got her on a table. They started taking care of me and her because I was out of breath.”

    Eventually, Bazzel got Stella to Philadelphia Animal Specialty & Emergency. There, a surgeon pieced together Stella’s crushed foreleg, keeping it together with a plate. Stella also needed a skin graft.

    “She’s with me every single place I go,” Bazzel said of Stella. “She’s my emotional support. She’s my best friend. It just breaks your heart to see what she’s going through.”

    Bazzel is hoping the dog’s foreleg will be saved, but is still waiting to see if it heals. He said the medical bills total about $9,000 so far, and he expects it could run thousands more by the time treatment is over. He has also set up a GoFundMe account.

    The third attack occurred 7 a.m., Dec. 31, as a 74-year-old man was walking his dog at 19th and Walnut Streets, according to police.

    There, a homeless person, described by police as a white male wearing a black coat and dark blankets, was lying on the ground with a pit bull.

    The pit bull then rose to bite both the man and dog. The man drove himself to a hospital for treatment.

    The city’s Animal Care and Control Team is aware of the situation, said ACCT Philly executive director Sarah Barnett.

    But, stopping the pit bull is a process.

    “We can’t just take someone’s dog; the process takes so long and it’s not victim friendly,” Barnett said.

    The steps involve filing dangerous dog charges, taking the owner to court, and waiting over 30 days. This process is more complicated when the owner is unhoused, she said.

    After three attacks, Barnett conceded there’s a chance that the pit bull attacks again.

    “It wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s dog gets attacked and they do something horrible like shoot it,” Barnett said. She encouraged people to instead call the police if they think they have spotted the pit bull.

    “Be aware of your surroundings and don’t just assume the dog is only in Center City,” she said.

    This story has been corrected to say that Stella was initially bought to VEG Emergency Vet center, not Vedge the restaurant.

  • Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here’s the history.

    Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here’s the history.

    In 1976, the government of oil-rich Venezuela assumed control of the country’s petroleum industry, nationalizing hundreds of private businesses and foreign-owned assets, including projects operated by the American giant ExxonMobil.

    In 2007, Hugo Chávez, the founder of Venezuela’s socialist state, assumed control of the last privately run oil operations in the Orinoco Belt, home to the country’s largest oil deposits.

    President Donald Trump said in December that the expropriation of American oil company assets justified a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers arriving and leaving Venezuela in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The blockade will remain, he wrote on Truth Social, until the South American nation returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

    “They’re not going to do that again,” Trump told reporters. “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.”

    But U.S. companies never owned oil or land in Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves of crude, and officials didn’t kick them out of the country.

    “Trump’s claim that Venezuela has stolen oil and land from the U.S. is baseless,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver.

    Nationalization was the culmination of a decades-long effort by administrations of both the right and the left to bring under government control an industry that an earlier leader had largely given away.

    The right-wing strongman Juan Vicente Gómez, the military dictator who ruled Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935, granted concessions that left three foreign oil companies in control of 98% of the Venezuelan market. The country became the world’s second-largest oil producer and largest exporter; oil accounted for over 90% of the country’s total exports.

    Gómez’s successors tried to seize greater control over the country’s economy. Under President Isaías Medina Angarita, authorities approved a law in 1943 that required foreign oil companies to relinquish half their profits to the government. A 1958 pact signed by Democratic Action, the Democratic Republican Union, and the Independent Political Electoral Organization Committee ensured the country’s major political parties had access to oil profits.

    By the time Venezuelan lawmakers began debating nationalization legislation in 1975, Rodríguez said, the “writing was on the wall.”

    “Nobody was going to resist Venezuela carrying this nationalization to its end, and the U.S. was much more interested in having Venezuela be a provider of oil — relatively cheap oil — than to have a production collapse in Venezuela,” Rodríguez said. The change, consequently, was “relatively uncontroversial.”

    President Carlos Andrés Pérez, a social democrat, signed the bill into law that August. In January 1976, Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. took over the exploration, production, refining, and export of oil.

    The country followed Mexico, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia in a wave of resource nationalism aimed at trying to wrest control of energy resources, primarily from the United States, to achieve economic sovereignty.

    American oil companies, including Exxon and Mobil, which merged in 1999, and Gulf Oil, which became Chevron in 1984, were hit hardest. The Dutch giant Shell was also affected. The companies, which had accounted for more than 70% of crude oil production in Venezuela, lost roughly $5 billion in assets but were compensated just $1 billion each, according to news reports from that period.

    But they didn’t seek larger sums, Rodríguez said, and “felt that it didn’t make sense to press it more.” They also lacked “a mechanism that would have allowed the companies in 1976 to actually take these cases to court.”

    (A 1991 bilateral investment treaty between Venezuela and the Netherlands created a legal pathway for investors to sue a foreign government for unfair treatment. Cases go before private arbitration panels rather than courts.)

    In January 2007, Chávez called for the nationalization of the natural gas industry — part of his plan to redistribute oil wealth and transform the poverty-stricken nation into a socialist state.

    When PDVSA assumed control of oil operations in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips were unable to agree to new contract terms and sought up to $40 billion in compensation through arbitration.

    Several oil companies, including Chevron and Spanish-owned Repsol, remained in Venezuela under new contract terms. Chevron is the only American company still operating there.

    In 2012, the International Chamber of Commerce awarded ExxonMobil $908 million in compensation, less than the $1 billion that Venezuela had offered. The tribunal awarded ConocoPhillips $2 billion in 2018. The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes awarded ExxonMobil $1.6 billion in 2014 and ConocoPhillips $8.7 billion in 2019.

    Venezuela has yet to pay the full amounts. The economy is struggling under hyperinflation, government corruption, and U.S. sanctions. Under Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, oil exports, once 3 million to 4 million barrels a day, are now estimated at no more than 900,000 barrels per day. Most of it goes to China.

    “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, wrote in a post on X. “Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property.”

    Rodríguez said the administration’s position “just doesn’t have any logic.”

    “It’s kind of like an odd argument,” he said. “You owe me some money. We both went to court. The court said, ‘You pay me this.’ You start paying me, then I — by force, by the imposition of sanctions — make it impossible for you to continue paying me, and then I accuse you of stealing something from me.”

  • Venezuelans wonder who’s in charge as Trump claims contact with Maduro’s deputy

    Venezuelans wonder who’s in charge as Trump claims contact with Maduro’s deputy

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.

    President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: the United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro’s most trusted aides.

    Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.

    “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

    In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, didn’t have the support to run the country.

    Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”

    “I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

    Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party’s many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.

    “There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro,” Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.

    There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.

    “What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.

    No sign of a swearing-in

    Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.

    In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.

    “What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”

    The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.

    But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.

    Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.

    “They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.

    Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.

    “These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.

    Strong ties with Wall Street

    A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

    She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.

    Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.

    Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.

    Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hard-liners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela’s democratically elected president in the 1990s.

    Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.

    That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.

    “These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela’s political dynamics over the past three decades.

    “A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now,” Smilde said. ”If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished, and it will be easier for her to gain control.”

    An apparent snub of the opposition

    Shortly before Trump’s news conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief.”

    In a triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”

    She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power.”

    Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader,” he said.

    “She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”

    Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women’s names. Machado has not responded to Trump’s remarks.