Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that Florida is exploring legal grounds to bring state criminal charges against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, even as federal authorities pursue their own case against him.
Speaking at a news conference in Clearwater, DeSantis said Florida’s attorney general is “looking very seriously” at whether state law could be used to charge Maduro. He cited alleged involvement in narcotics, gang activity and immigration issues as possible bases for a state case, though no charges have been filed yet.
“To be able to bring, potentially, a state case against Nicolás Maduro…” DeSantis told a cheering crowd, without offering a timeline for any formal filing.
The comments come as Venezuela reels from a U.S. military operation that captured Maduro over the weekend. The Cuban government also publicly acknowledged officers killed in the operation — a rare admission about Cuba’s intelligence presence in Venezuela.
Eduardo Gamarra, a politics and international relations professor at Florida International University, said Cuba’s announcement underscores the broader international implications of the Maduro capture.
“They never had admitted they had this huge intelligence apparatus there,” Gamarra said. “Everybody knew it, except the Cubans never would have admitted it.”
President Donald Trump has framed the capture as part of a broader effort to address Venezuela’s future, saying the U.S. will “run and fix Venezuela.” Gamarra said one likely condition from Washington will be pushing Venezuela to cut ties with Cuba, potentially reshaping the region’s geopolitical landscape.
Experts caution that Venezuela’s economy — especially its oil exports — matters greatly to Cuba’s survival, and losing that support could worsen conditions on the island.
In South Florida, some Cuban exiles celebrated Maduro’s capture and expressed hope that similar action might one day target Cuba’s president. But Gamarra said that scenario is unlikely.
“I think the president said it very clear, right? We are going to let Cuba fall on its own. We don’t have to push it over,” he said.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has condemned the U.S. operation, calling it a “war crime” and saying it has launched its own investigation into the raid.
