The United States will indefinitely run the Venezuelan government after capturing President Nicolas Maduro, who, along with his wife Cilia Flores, arrived on New York soil to face trial on narco-terrorism charges.

The plane carrying Maduro and Flores landed at Stewart Air National Guard base in Windsor, New York, just after 4:45 pm Saturday local time – roughly 14 hours after they were taken into custody by joint US military and police forces at their Caracas compound.

They were led down the plane’s stairway surrounded by dozens of law enforcement officers and then taken to a facility at the military airbase.

Maduro was earlier seen aboard the USS Iwo Jima in US custody, handcuffed, blindfolded and wearing a grey Nike sweatsuit.

The ousted dictator is expected in court in New York City as early as Monday (US time).

Mr Trump revealed the US government would run Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.

At a press conference after the raid, he said US oil companies would pour billions of dollars into the region to repair its oil infrastructure. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Mr Trump said.

Venezuela holds the world’s biggest oil reserves.

Maduro and his wife had been attempting to enter a steel safe room when they were captured by US forces.

SOURCE: News.com.au