State Department warns US citizens to leave Venezuela

The operation to capture and bring Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to the U.S. took months of planning with the Department of Defense, according to a joint statement from the agency and the Justice Department, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

"Specialized FBI and DEA personnel, including tactical and transport teams, worked alongside DOW and our DOJ attorneys and other DOJ components to ensure the secure movement, control, and transfer of 2 high-risk defendants," the statement says, in part. "All personnel involved acted professionally, decisively, and in strict accordance with U.S. law and established protocols."

The statement further says the United States "pursued every lawful option to resolve this matter peacefully. Those opportunities were repeatedly rejected. The responsibility for this outcome rests solely with those who chose to continue criminal conduct rather than disengage."

"The mission was conducted to support an ongoing criminal prosecution tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking and related offenses that have fueled violence, destabilized the region, and contributed directly to the drug crisis claiming American lives," according to the statement.

-ABC News' Luke Barr

In a statement released on Sunday, Venezuela's minister of defense condemned the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling it a "cowardly kidnapping."

Maduro and his wife, according to President Donald Trump, were arrested and brought to the United States to face federal narco-terrorism charges.

The statement, posted on the Instagram account for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, said a "large part" of Maduro's security team was killed in the U.S. mission that extracted Maduro from his Caracas compound in the early morning hours on Saturday.

The statement goes on to say that the Venezuelan military will support Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's vice president, as she assumes the role of acting president, and will "guarantee the governability of the country, and our institution will continue to employ all its available capabilities for military defense."

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will appear in Manhattan federal court on Monday for arraignment on a four-count indictment that will charge him with allegedly leading a 25-year narco-terrorism conspiracy.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday the U.S. was in charge of "the direction" of the situation in Venezuela after U.S. forces arrested and deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

"President Trump was pretty clear yesterday. He said the United States is going to run Venezuela. Under what legal authority?" ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos asked.

"Well, first of all, what's going to happen here is that 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," Rubio said.

But pressed on whether the U.S. was in charge of the country right now, Rubio said that what the U.S. was "running" was the direction of the situation.

"What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage," Rubio said.

"The leverage that we have here is the leverage of the quarantine. So that is a Department of War operation conducting, in some cases, law enforcement functions with the Coast Guard on the seizure of these boats," Rubio said.

Rubio added that Maduro was someone the U.S. "simply couldn't work with," and said that the administration was not recognizing Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the current legitimate leader.

"We don't believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election," Rubio said.

"Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections, which they have not had," he added.

-ABC News Nicholas Kerr