New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday he was briefed on plans to imprison Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in New York City, calling their capture an "act of war and a violation of federal and international law."
President Donald Trump announced the couple's capture in a "large scale strike" Saturday morning, following months of assaults on suspected drug vessels allegedly tied to the Venezuelan regime in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement the attack was carried out to seize the country's oil and minerals and was an "attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a ‘regime change,’ in alliance with the fascist oligarchy."
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Mamdani, a democratic socialist inaugurated on New Year's Day, said during a news conference Saturday he discussed the matter with Trump on the phone, pushing back on the commander in chief's decision.
"I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal international law and a desire to see that be consistent each and every day," Mamdani said. "I registered my opposition, I made it clear and we left it at that."
The mayor later took to X, claiming the "blatant pursuit of regime change" will directly affect New Yorkers and Venezuelans living in New York City.
"My focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker, and my administration will continue to monitor the situation and issue relevant guidance," Mamdani wrote in the post.
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Maduro and Mamdani believe in redistributing wealth downward, with Mamdani focused on taxing the wealthy and corporations to fund public services and Maduro redistributing wealth through oil revenues and state control of resources.
Mamdani also campaigned on public-run housing, childcare, transit and city-owned grocery stores, similar to Maduro's policies of state-run food distribution, healthcare and housing.
Fox News host and former white house press secretary Kayleigh McEnany noted the "juxtaposition" of Maduro being prosecuted in New York City, which Mamdani oversees.
"The ‘warm collectivism’ promised during Mamdani’s inaugural speech (which killed 100 million people in the 20th century) is about to be prosecuted in federal court in the city he oversees," McEnany wrote in an X post. "The juxtaposition is quite something."
However, Venezuelan socialism involves nationalization and central control, which led to an economic collapse and authoritarian drift.
Mamdani's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Source: Fox News - Politics
