US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Washington would govern Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition takes place” after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a military operation on Saturday morning.
American forces had captured Maduro and his wife early on Saturday morning after launching a “large-scale strike” on the South American country.
Addressing a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said, “No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday,” he said.
“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,” the US president said.
“So we’re going to run the country, until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. We’re going to run it, essentially.”
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, the US on January 3. — AFP
Trump added: “All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of the US military, working with law enforcement, successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.”
Moreover, he said that the US military caused a blackout in Caracas to execute the operation to capture Maduro.
“It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said.
He added that the US is ready to launch a second and much larger wave of attacks if needed, adding that Washington assumed a second wave would be necessary.
“The first wave … was so successful we probably don‘t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave,” Trump stated.
Continuing his address, Trump said that Venezuela’s oil industry “was a bust” and that US oil companies would come in, repair the oil infrastructure and “start making money for the country”.
However, Trump brushed aside Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a potential interim leader of Venezuela, as he said Washington was working with the deposed Maduro’s vice president.
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” Trump said. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.“
Moreover, both he and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested potential action against Cuba and Colombia.
‘Months of planning and rehearsal’
The US military operation to extract Maduro in a nighttime raid in Caracas took “months of planning and rehearsal” and more than 150 US aircraft were used, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine told reporters at Trump’s press conference.
“The word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise — it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere,” Gen Caine told a joint press conference with President Donald Trump.
He added that Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, surrendered to US forces in Caracas before being extracted.
“Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible US military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of US life,” Gen Caine said.
In a Truth Social post earlier today, Trump wrote: “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.
