Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad en route to a federal courthouse on Jan. 5.

Of all the urgent questions surrounding the Trump administration's actions in Venezuela over the past several days, one rises to the top: What happens now?

The United States has swooped into a sovereign nation and seized its head of state. Our president has declared we are going to “run” the oil-rich country for the foreseeable future, though some of his aides are backpedaling that. This act of imperialistic aggression was launched with no involvement from Congress and, it is increasingly plain, no clear plan for what comes next in Venezuela.

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Nothing we say here should be taken as a defense of Nicolas Maduro, the strongman who has run that South American country since 2013. Mr. Maduro’s rule has been tainted with all the marks of authoritarian thuggery: rigged elections; violent crackdowns on protesters; control of the courts, the military and the media.

But none of that made it our place to depose him. And U.S. history is rife with examples in which our attempts at regime change and nation building led us to quagmires or heavy losses — of American money, status and soldiers’ lives.

Furthermore, if this were about ending autocracy, why is President Donald J. Trump leaving Mr. Maduro’s government in place? Why have we snubbed the opposition leaders who actually won the 2024 election, in favor of Delcy Rodríguez, Mr. Maduro’s vice president, whom the U.S. censured during Mr. Trump's first term and who has decried America’s........

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