Why US did not arrest more members of Maduro's regime

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says America is at war "against drug trafficking organisations", not Venezuela, a day after US strikes on the country.

President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured during Saturday's strikes.

Maduro is being held in a New York jail and faces drug trafficking-related charges. He has previously denied being the leader of a drug cartel.

Venezuela denounces the "military aggression", while Delcy Rodríguez has been sworn in as interim president.

Why US did not arrest more members of Maduro's regime

In an interview with CBS, Rubio is asked why the US didn't arrest other members of Maduro's regime.

The US government has offered a reward of up to $25m (£18.6m) for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and $15m for Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino.

"It's very simple," Rubio replies. "You're not going to go in and wrap up."

He says people can only "imagine the howls" the US would have faced if they had stayed in the country longer to capture more people.

"We got the top priority," he says.

Rubio has also been speaking to CBS, where he says the US will judge Venezuela "by what they do".

According to a transcript of the interview, the secretary of state says: "If they don't make the right decisions, the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage to ensure that our interests are protected."

That includes the "oil quarantine" in place, he says.

"We're going to judge everything by what they do, and we're going to see what they do," he adds.

Rubio says US will give Venezuela chance to 'address problems'

Rubio tells NBC he expects to "see more compliance and co-operation from Venezuela".

He says that, with Nicolás Maduro, the US "could not make a deal or arrangement" despite giving him "very generous offers", adding that Maduro "could have left Venezuela as recently as a week and a half ago".

"There were opportunities for him to avoid all this," he says.

The secretary of state says the US is going to give Venezuela "an opportunity to address the problems" raised by Trump's administration.

Until then, says Rubio, Venezuela will continue to face the oil quarantine, pressure from the US, and have "drug boats" targeted and seized when necessary.

The secretary says the US "expect to see changes in Venezuela", with the "most immediate" being those "in national interest in US".

He describes a country where "people in charge of military and police are openly co-operating with drug trafficking organisations".

Rubio says these are threats to the US that his government intends "to use every element of leverage" to address.

In the interview with ABC a few minutes ago, Marco Rubio was asked why congressional authorisation wasn't sought before the US operation in Venezuela.

Rubio says it "wasn't necessary because this wasn't an invasion".

He describes it as a "law enforcement operation", and says Maduro was "arrested on the ground by FBI agents".

You can't notify Congress of an operation like this because "it will leak", he adds.

He also says "all kinds of conditions" have to line up, such as weather and individuals' movements.

Rubio is asked if he thinks Interim President Delcy Rodríguez is now the legitimate president of Venezuela.

He says "this is not about the legitimate president" as the US does not believe the regime in place is legitimate.

Rubio says he understands there are people in Venezuela today "who are the ones who can actually make changes".

But he says this is different from recognising the legitimacy of Venezuela's government, which will come from a period of transition and an election.