Chicago's Venezuelans applaud ouster of Maduro but question Trump's motives

Venezuelans across Chicago say they’re hopeful for their homeland after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who now faces criminal charges.

President Donald Trump announced early Saturday that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested after “a large-scale strike” in Caracas, Venezuela. Trump said there were injuries but no one was killed.

“Today we woke up to the best news we've ever received,” said Jessica, a Chicago woman who fled Venezuela eight years ago. “All of us Venezuelans fled our country because of [Maduro] because we were being persecuted, because they were threatening us.”

Jessica, 33, who did not share her last name for fear of compromising her immigration status, said she heard the news of Maduro’s capture from her family in Venezuela who were woken up by air strikes.

She said she felt a mix of relief and worry, unsure what Maduro’s capture would mean for Venezuelans still in the country and for asylum seekers like her who fled for their safety.

Trump said Saturday that the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela in the aftermath of Maduro’s capture. He said Maduro would “eventually” be brought to New York to be tried on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said during a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “We don’t want to be involved with having someone else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country.”

Some Venezuelans, like Andrea Bonilla of Uptown, were skeptical about Trump’s intentions.

Bonilla, 24, said Trump was “just looking for a way in” to take over oil production in Venezuela. “He thinks the oil belongs to the United States,” she said.

Trump said a group of leaders would step in to run Venezuela, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and added that the U.S. would be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry.

Jessica also said she believes Trump intervened for his own political gain, not for the good of Venezuelans.

“He’s not helping because they love Venezuela or because they care about the Venezuelan people,” she said.

Venezuelans in Chicago said Maduro’s rule brought devastation, costing lives and tearing families apart. And while his capture has brought moments of celebration, some said it also leaves them with lingering uncertainty about what comes next.

“Some people think it means Venezuela is free," Bonilla said of Maduro's capture. "But governments don't work that fast. No government has ever worked that fast in rebuilding. We are all hopeful, some of us are just a little bit more grounded.”

A lot of work will need to be done to undo all of the damage, she said.

Maduro’s capture has also raised questions about what will happen to asylum seekers. Despite his removal, Venezuela remains dangerous and unstable, some Chicagoans said.

Even with his capture, Bonilla said, she would not consider going back. “There’s nothing for us there."

Bonilla and her family fled Venezuela when she was 14, fearing for their safety. While she and her father now have legal residency, she said her mother and brother still have pending asylum cases.

Frank Sandoval of Lockport, who came to the U.S. from Venezuela seeking asylum, was a lawyer and supported the opposition party while working in high-level government jobs. He fled in 2018 after getting threats following a demonstration at which he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Respect the constitution.”

He said Venezuelans who were granted political asylum or still have open cases could be compromised if the U.S. government decides that the danger they fled no longer exists because Maduro was captured.

“There are still some of these people left who are delinquents, who are criminals, and who hold supposed government positions that they have appointed themselves to because nobody voted for them,” Sandoval said.

Despite the long journey to liberation ahead, Sandoval said he was optimistic about Venezuelans' future.

“We continue to pray for the freedom of our homeland because freedom has not yet been won,” he said.

Illinois leaders criticize Trump for bypassing Congress

Meanwhile, Chicago and Illinois political leaders on Saturday criticized the U.S. government's attack on Venezuela as unconstitutional because of Trump's failure to consult Congress.

Their comments came as Trump, in his media briefing, briefly called out Chicago crime, Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.

"We also helped, as you know, in Chicago, and crime went down a little bit there," Trump said in the briefing, adding it was a "very small" effort.

"We had no...no working ability with the governor. It was a disaster, and the mayor was a disaster," Trump said in the briefing, asserting that they were "pulling out," of Chicago.

In a post on X, Pritzker slammed the attack.

"Donald Trump’s unconstitutional military action in Venezuela is putting our troops in harm's way with no long-term strategy," Pritzker's post read. "The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable."

Combat veteran and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., was also among those critical of the attack. She called Trump’s actions "reckless" and "unconstitutional."

“The American people believed Donald Trump when he promised on the campaign trail that he would get our nation out of foreign wars, but this morning we awoke to another stark reminder that he is — and has always been — a liar who has never cared about keeping his promises," she said in a statement. "The Constitution requires the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, to authorize any President to engage in acts of war—because they will be the ones to live with the consequences of the decision—and it is unacceptable for this President to deny them that responsibility."

"Maduro was unquestionably a bad actor, but no President has the authority to unilaterally decide to use force to topple a government, thrusting us and the region into uncertainty without justification, a defined end-state or a real plan for preventing the instability that could come next," Duckworth said.

U.S. Rep. Chuy García, D-Ill., also criticized the failure to consult Congress. “Trump’s actions will not stop fentanyl trafficking, as Venezuela doesn’t produce any. Instead, in an imperialist assertion of hemispheric control, Trump’s actions open the doors to his own self-enrichment and that of his oil-executive donors," Garcia said in the a.

He called on House Speaker U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., to "reconvene Congress so that we can be briefed on this matter and vote to oppose further attacks."

U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said the capture of Maduro didn't justify the administration's actions.

“Nicolas Maduro has been indicted in U.S. courts for drug trafficking, stole the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, and has denied the Venezuelan people their just democratic aspirations. He is unquestionably a bad actor who deserves to face justice," Schneider said in a statement. “Those facts alone, however, do not relieve President Trump of his constitutional obligations or give him blanket authority to send the U.S. military into a foreign land."

“President Trump owes the American people clear and convincing evidence that Maduro and the Venezuelan regime posed an imminent threat to the United States and our citizens, and a clear legal justification for using military force without prior authorization from Congress," Schneider said.

“The President must also present Congress with a credible strategy for what comes next. The Administration needs to explain how it intends to prevent Venezuela from further collapsing, becoming a failed state, and potentially destabilizing the entire region—posing an even greater threat to the American people and our allies."

Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., called Maduro and illegitimate and oppressive leader, but said, Trump "needs to stop acting like a dictator and start improving the lives of Americans, including people who actually voted for him, adding that the military strike does "nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans" and does "everything to enrich himself and his billionaire oil-executive friends. Our focus should be here at home, lowering costs of healthcare, housing, and groceries.”