Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared on Monday at a hearing in federal court in New York City for the first time since they were taken from their residence in the middle of the night on Saturday.

Large crowds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse, many voicing opposition to the US action against Venezuela. Protest signs read "USA hands off Venezuela," "No US war on Venezuela," "US hands off Venezuela oil" and "Free Pres. Nicolas Maduro."

The US government carried out what US President Donald Trump described as a "large-scale strike", capturing Maduro and his wife and flying them out of the country. The couple was subsequently confirmed to have been transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Rae Lee, who had been outside the courthouse since 9 am, three hours before Maduro's arraignment, told China Daily she believes the action constituted an international crime. Lee said she visited Venezuela in December.

"It was really remarkable. Here in the US, they are only ever talking about terrible conditions like people are oppressed by their government … They've been building their resilience through the years, and economically they have grown really powerfully, like their housing projects. It's incredible what we saw," she said.

"It (US) desperately wants its oil, and its natural resources, so they want to install a puppet regime … These charges, they are just seeing what sticks. But we know that it is fundamentally, if we look at the basic picture, the US going to a sovereign nation and kidnapping their head of state, who has been elected twice democratically, their election, much more transparent and accurate and representative than ours. It is a crime. It is an international crime. We have to condemn it."