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LAST UPDATE | 48 mins ago
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump said that US forces had captured Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro and will now “run” the country and send oil companies to the country.
In a press conference in his Florida resort of Mar-a-lago he declared that the US was going to run Venezuela until a transition Government could be put in place.
He said: “until such time that we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition”…
“We are going to stay until such time that a proper transition can take place”.
Trump’s announcement follows months of steadily mounting US military and economic pressure on leftist president Maduro and his country’s oil-export-dependent economy.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”
Trump added: “The US president told a press conference in Mar-a-Lago in Florida: “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years, so we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
“And it has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country, it’s their homeland.”
Trump said he would allow American oil companies to head into Venezuela to tap its massive crude reserves after a US military operation to seize the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.
Pam Bondi, the US Attorney General, has said Maduro and his wife, Cilla Flores, have been indicted on charges of “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States”.
The US army’s elite Delta Force unit carried out the operation to seize Maduro. US officials did not immediately confirm the report.
The Trump administration in August offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns” drug trafficking organisation.
Trump said his regime was not afraid to put US troops on the ground in Venezuela. He did not clearly state how the US would run the country but said he was “designating” various people to act as caretakers.
He said Marco Rubio was in contact with the Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez, who is now the South American State’s leader. Reuters has said earlier that she is in Russia.
He said opposition leader Maria Machado does not have the “support or respect” of the country.
In an interview with Fox News, ahead of a press conference, Trump said that the US was going to launch the operation four days ago but it was delayed due to weather.
The US President said that no US service members were killed in the operation although helicopters were hit by gunfire.
“Was amazing. I think we had nobody killed, because couple of guys were hit, but they came back, and they’re supposed to be in pretty good shape,” he said.
Trump claimed the operation was needed and said: “We had to do it because it’s a war.”
The President said that Maduro was in a “fortress” with steel doors and was attempting to get into a “safety space” but was captured by US Special Forces.
Maduro and his wife have been taken to the USS Iwo Jima and will be transferred to court in New York.
The US said 150 aircraft were involved in the operation were involved in the mission.
Helicopters flew into Venezuela at 100 feet above the sea – the aircraft carried the extraction force along with law enforcement officers.
A massive armada of US aircraft, including drones, were above them to provide cover. The bombers and other aircraft took out anti-aircraft equipment.
The force made their raid over Caracus at 1am local time – approximately 6am Irish time.
As the US left Venezuela with Maduro and his wife they came under fire. The mission ended shortly after 3am local time.
The US is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so” but it is “probably not necessary”, Trump added.
Trump has given differing arguments for his campaign against Venezuela, including the claim that the country is a major drug exporter to the United States and that Venezuela seized US oil interests.
The Republican leader has not explicitly called for Maduro’s ouster but the US government, along with many European nations, does not recognize the Venezuelan leader’s legitimacy.
Trump said in December that “it would be smart for (Maduro)” to step down and has also said that the Venezuelan leader’s “days are numbered”.
The US President has also announced that US oil companies will take over the Venezuelan energy production companies.
“We are going to take back the oil,” Trump told the press conference.
The US president’s claim of Maduro’s capture comes two days after Maduro attempted to engage with Trump, offering cooperation on fighting drug trafficking and illegal migration.
A huge naval and aerial presence has been established in the Caribbean, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships.
US forces have seized two tankers at sea as part of an oil blockade on Venezuela and killed more than 100 people in aerial strikes to destroy small boats accused of drug trafficking.
Trump said on Monday that the United States had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats, in what was the first known strike on Venezuelan soil of the campaign.
At the press conference the US President said that the Colombian President Gustavo Petro should “watch his ass”.
With reporting from AFP.
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