Condemnation and applause in Latin America after US seizes Venezuela's Maduro

Latin American leaders were divided between condemnation and jubilation in the wake of a surprise attack on Venezuela early on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump said resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.



While much of the region has long been wary of a return to U.S. interventions throughout the 20th century that helped install authoritarian governments from Chile to Honduras, Maduro - who presided over his country’s social and economic collapse - was an increasingly unpopular and isolated leader.



Many Latin American countries have also experienced a shift in recent ‌elections to more right-leaning governments, many of whose leaders view the U.S.-backed military regimes of the last century as necessary bulwarks against socialism.



In a sign of the economic pain faced under Maduro, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2018, with 85% of them migrating to neighbors ‍in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration.