In the early hours of yesterday morning, the United States carried out a sweeping attack against Venezuela, capturing its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in what the White House described as a massive joint military and US law enforcement operation.

They were transported to one of several US warships deployed to the Caribbean Sea.

US President Donald Trump announced that the US would be “running” the country, maintaining a pre­sence via its oil companies until it could safely transition out of the Maduro regime’s hold—a declaration that marked one of the most drama­tic assertions of Ameri­can power in Latin America in the past three decades.