NEW YORK, 04 JAN (DNA) —   City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he personally called President Donald Trump to object to what he described as a “pursuit of regime change” 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 States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

“We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.”

Trump also said as part of the takeover, major US oil companies would move into Venezuela, which has the world’s 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 “directly” to make his position clear.

“I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,” he said. Mamdani said his objection was based on opposition to a “pursuit of regime change” and actions he believes go against federal and international law, which he said should be applied consistently. ‘It is about oil’

Meanwhile, reacting to the development, former US vice president Kamala Harris said that President Trump’s actions did not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable”.”That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We’ve 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,” Harris said in a post on X.

“The 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,” the ex-president remarked. Earlier, the mayor described the US military operation that led to Maduro’s capture as “an act of war” and a “blatant pursuit of regime change.”

In 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.“Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,” he said, warning that the move marked a dangerous escalation in US foreign policy.

Mamdani 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.“My focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker,” he said, adding that his administration would keep monitoring the situation and issue guidance if needed.

His comments came after President Trump announced that US forces had carried out a “large-scale strike” 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. — DNA