Follow our live coverage of the unfolding situation in Venezuela here.

Geneva: Nobody should be shedding any tears for Nicolás Maduro now that the Venezuelan leader is set to stand trial in New York after being seized on the orders of Donald Trump.

Maduro persecuted his opponents, stole elections and governed corruptly. He faces charges of conspiracy to import cocaine after years of concern that he ruled his country like a drug lord.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima after he was captured by US forces.Credit: @realDonaldTrump/ Truth Social

Trump claims this is a show of American strength in bringing a criminal to justice. But this military mission to capture a foreign leader will deepen the doubts about the US president and his judgment.

It is challenging, but not impossible, for American forces to bombard a small neighbour and send special forces into its capital. It is much harder for an American president to control what happens in the aftermath. This explains why global leaders are so cautious about this operation. No major European leaders have endorsed the use of force to bring down the Venezuelan government.

Contrary to the bombast, this operation is not a radical change in American strategy under Trump. In some ways, he is merely doing what previous presidents did to preserve US power in what it regards as its hemisphere.

President Ronald Reagan sent troops into Grenada in 1983 to remove leaders backed by Cuba, while president George Bush snr sent them into Panama in 1989 to seize a military dictator who was complicit in cocaine exports. That leader, Manuel Noriega, served 17 years in prison and died while facing further........

© The Sydney Morning Herald