Venezuelan migrants across the world have voiced both condemnation and support of the US mission to capture deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized at their home early on Saturday, flown out of the country and placed on a US-bound warship to face a criminal trial in New York.
US President Donald Trump said the US would "run" Venezuela until a new government was installed.
Anti-Maduro demonstrators in Mexico City celebrated what they described as the end of Venezuela's narco-government.
Gloria Sosa, a Venezuelan living in Mexico for 18 years, expressed happiness and peace over the developments.
"The narco-government is finished. The narco-government in Venezuela is over," she said.
"We feel happiness and peace."
Mr Maduro, who was indicted on various US charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, according to a Justice Department official.
In Argentina and Colombia's capital, Venezuelans celebrated Mr Maduro's capture.
Venezuelans living in Buenos Aires cheered and hugged one another in the main street, waving Venezuelan flags.
In Peru's capital, Lima, dozens of Venezuelans gathered, many wrapped in their country's flag, to mark Mr Maduro's deposition.
Venezuelan migrant Milagros Ortega, whose parents are still in Venezuela, said she hoped to go back.
"Knowing that my dad was alive to see the fall of Nicolás Maduro is very emotional. I would like to see his face," she said.
However, some supporters of Mr Maduro chanted slogans rejecting what they called US interventionism.
Margarett (who only gave her first name), a Californian resident living in Mexico City, believed that Mr Trump was trying to distract from domestic problems by killing innocent people.
"I'm embarrassed by what my country is doing. Venezuela isn't our enemy. Trump is our enemy," she said.
"I think he's trying to deflect from all the bad things he's doing in the United States by killing innocent people."
Cautious optimism amid speculation about the future
Mr Trump announced that the US would run Venezuela until a proper transition could occur and would be reimbursed from the country's oil reserves.
Mr Trump's decision to attack Venezuela, arrest its president and temporarily run the country marks a striking departure for a politician who long criticised others for overreaching on foreign affairs.
Legal scholar Mary Ellen O'Connell, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, said Mr Trump's vision for US involvement in Venezuela was complicated, as international law did not support this kind of indictment trial and prosecution.
"The most important principle of the rule of law that supports everything, I mean the very reason we have law, is to have an alternative to lawlessness and violence for people taking matters into their own hands," Ms O'Connell said.
After the initial joy, doubts about Venezuela's future also set in.
"Although what people are going through in Caracas is tough, I believe that beyond that, there is a light that will lead us to freedom," said Andres Losada, who has lived in Spain for three years.
"We are still not at the point where we can say Venezuela is completely free," said Maria Fernanda Monsilva, at a march in Quito.
She said she hoped the Venezuelan opposition's main candidate in the 2024 presidential election could take power.
World leaders split
The strongest condemnation of the attack came in a string of posts on X from neighbouring Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, a leftist who has frequently clashed with Mr Trump and has also been threatened by the US president.
"The Colombian government rejects the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America," Mr Petro said in one message.
He called for an immediate meeting of the United Nations Security Council, of which Colombia is a member.
His Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, echoed Mr Petro's comments.
"The bombings on Venezuela's territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line," he said in a statement.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would not recognise a US intervention in Venezuela that violated international law.
Since 2014, 7.7 million Venezuelans, or 20 per cent of the population, have left the country, unable to afford food or seeking better opportunities abroad, according to the UN International Orgainization for Migration.
Peruvian President Jose Jeri said on X that his government would facilitate the immediate return of Venezuelans, regardless of their immigration status.
"For those of us living in exile, it is an immense joy," said Cynthia Diaz at a small march convened in Ecuador's capital, Quito.
"Venezuelans, sooner rather than later, will return to Venezuela — to a free Venezuela, to a Venezuela that is a land of greatness."
In Ecuador, right-wing President Daniel Noboa said Venezuelans opposed Mr Maduro and his political godfather, Hugo Chavez.
"All the criminal narco-Chavistas will have their moment," Mr Noboa said on X.
"Their structure will finally collapse across the continent."
Reuters/ABC
