US President Donald Trump said the United States intends to assume control of Venezuela following what he described as the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a US special forces operation. The president also outlined plans for American energy companies to enter Venezuela, saying US oil firms would invest billions of dollars to repair the country’s damaged oil infrastructure and begin extracting crude. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump said Washington would administer Venezuela during a transitional period. “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he told reporters.
According to Mr Trump, the operation involved US Delta Force troops who apprehended Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a night-time helicopter raid on their heavily fortified residence inside a military base in the capital, Caracas. Sources familiar with the incident said the couple were taken from their bedroom in the early hours of Saturday and flown out of the country aboard a US military helicopter.
Mr Trump later told Fox & Friends that the detainees were transported to the USS Iwo Jima, stationed in the Caribbean, and are being extradited to the United States. He said both Mr Maduro and Ms Flores face criminal charges related to narco-terrorism.
The president said the mission had been planned several days earlier but was delayed due to weather conditions. He added that no US personnel were killed during the operation, though some were injured and later evacuated. “I think we had nobody killed,” Mr Trump said, adding that those injured were expected to recover.
Standing behind the president at the press conference was a group of senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Mr Trump said would help oversee the interim administration.
Mr Trump did not rule out deploying additional US troops to Venezuela and issued a warning to remaining Venezuelan political and military leaders. “All political and military figures should bear in mind that what happened to Maduro could happen to them,” he said, adding that further military action remained an option “if we need to do so.”
The White House did not immediately provide independent verification of the operation, and Venezuelan officials had not publicly responded to Mr Trump’s claims at the time of writing.
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