US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears to have walked back President Donald Trump’s claim that the US would run Venezuela after capturing its president in an audacious raid that has sparked mixed reactions around the world.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, 63, who is being held in a Brooklyn detention centre with his wife, will face court in New York on Monday (US time) on drug trafficking charges.

A cuffed Maduro was paraded for the camera in a video shared by the White House and titled “Perp walked”.

US agents can be seen marching the South American leader down the hallway of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Maduro says “Good night” in English before quizzing himself in Spanish “Es buenas noches, no?”, which means, “That is good night, no?”

He then says, “Happy New Year”.

Indicted on various federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, Maduro is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday around midday.

It has been reported that at least 40 people were killed — including Maduro’s security detail — when the US snatched him early on Saturday morning (local time).

The raid knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas and ​included strikes on military installations.

US Special Forces seized Maduro and his wife and transported them via helicopter to a US Navy ship offshore before flying them to the US.

“We will run the country until such time as we can do ⁠a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday (AEDT).

But when questioned on Monday (AEDT), Rubio said the US’s sting was not an act of war or an invasion.

He did not say the US would govern Venezuela, but would use leverage from its oil blockade and military presence to steer the direction of its future.

“What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage,” Rubio said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

“What’s going to happen here is we have a quarantine on their oil, that means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met, and that’s what we intend to do.

“That leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing and we expect that it’s going to lead to results here,” Rubio said.

Around the world, there has been mixed reaction to the bold sting as people wonder what will become of Venezuela.

Protesters in major Australian cities condemned the US takeover, while others celebrated the downfall of the authoritarian leader.

Hundreds turned out on the streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth on Sunday following the news.

In Sydney, protesters waved posters that read, “Hands off Venezuela” and “Down with imperialism”.

But there was also jubilation from supporters of Venezuela’s opposition who celebrated the fall of Maduro.

Many were waving the nation’s flag while draped in red, blue and yellow, and brandished photos released of the ousted leader under arrest with the word “captured” superimposed across his image.

More than 150 people packed the steps of Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station, yelling “shame” when speakers said the ousted president had been “kidnapped”.

They brandished banners that read, “Release Maduro now! No regime change!” and “No war for oil! Solidarity with the people of Venezuela”.

Australian supporters of Venezuela’s opposition have welcomed the fall of President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: AAP

For months, Trump’s administration has criticised Maduro over what it called his involvement in shipping drugs to the US.

It ramped up pressure with a massive military build-up in the Caribbean and a series of deadly missile attacks on alleged drug-running boats.

While many Western allies oppose Maduro and say he stole Venezuela’s 2024 election, Trump’s boasts about controlling the nation and exploiting its oil revived painful memories of past US interventions in Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some experts questioned the legality of an operation to seize the head of state of a foreign power, while Democrats said they were misled during recent Congress briefings.

Trump said ​major US oil companies would move back into Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure – a process experts said could take years.

He ‍said he was open to sending US forces into Venezuela.

“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said.

A plane carrying Maduro landed near New York City on Saturday night, and he was flown to the city by helicopter before being taken by a large convoy to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Maduro’s government appears to still be in charge, with no appetite for co-operating ‌with Washington.

Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, appeared on Venezuelan television with other top officials to decry what she called a kidnapping.

“We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said, calling Maduro “the only president of Venezuela”.

A Venezuelan court ordered Rodriguez to assume ​the position of interim president.

Trump did not say who would lead Venezuela when the US ceded control, but appeared to rule out working with opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado.

“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he said.

In Venezuela, the streets were mostly quiet after a rush for groceries and fuel. Soldiers patrolled some parts and small pro-Maduro crowds gathered in Caracas.

Many Venezuelan migrants around the world ​erupted in celebration.

An estimated 7.7 million Venezuelans – 20 per cent of ​the population – have left the country since 2014.

The UN Security Council plans to meet on Monday to discuss the actions, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as “a dangerous precedent”.

Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, criticised the US.

“China firmly opposes such hegemonic behaviour by the US, which seriously violates international law, violates Venezuela’s sovereignty and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean,” China’s foreign ministry said.

Trump’s comments about an open-ended military presence in Venezuela echoed the rhetoric around past invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which ended in American withdrawals after years of costly occupation and thousands of US casualties.

A US occupation “won’t cost us a penny” because the United States would be reimbursed from the “money coming out of the ground”, Trump said, referring to Venezuela’s oil reserves, a subject he returned to repeatedly during Saturday’s press conference.

-with AAP