United Nations: US President Donald Trump highlighted the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and called for Mexico to ‘reclaim control of its soil’ from drug cartels.
Trump's comments on Maduro came as Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodríguez attended the UN General Assembly.
This was the first time since 2018 that a Venezuelan leader had attended the annual meeting, as Maduro, whom Trump referred to as an ‘outlaw dictator’, stopped attending after his country and the US broke off ties.
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Since returning to power in January 2025, Trump has designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and launched dozens of deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that US officials say were carrying narcotics bound for the US. Rights groups have said the strikes, which have killed more than 220 people, amount to extrajudicial killings.
Trump's National Security Strategy late last year outlined plans for a revamped Monroe Doctrine, the 19th-century policy asserting US primacy across the Americas that critics have long linked to decades of American intervention. Trump himself has taken to calling it the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, a play on his own name, after the phrase gained currency in conservative media.
