Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured early Saturday by US early forces during a stunning overnight nighttime military operation to remove the “fugitive” leader and bring a “new dawn” of freedom to the embattled nation.
“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 wrote on his Truth Social.
Trump ordered airstrikes on military sites around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas with at least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft reported in the region, which began around 2 a.m. local time amid heightened tensions between Maduro and the US.
The strikes rocked sites in the state of Miranda, where Caracas is located, and nearby Aragua and La Guiera, sending plumes of smoke and fire into the air and causing power outages. Photos show a fire tearing through Fuerte (Fort) Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex located in Caracas, after an explosion.
Maduro, 63, and Cilia Flores, 69, were seized from their bedroom after US forces broke through the high-security Ft Tiuna military compound, which described by Trump as a “fortress.”
The couple will face a litany of drug trafficking charges and face the “full wrath of American justice.” The US will run the embattled nation until a transition government is in place, “ until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said.
Maduro allegedly partnered with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to bring as much as 250 tons of cocaine into the US by 2020 via go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or via planes from clandestine airstrips, according to the indictment.
In the hours after the airstrikes, Trump said his administration was “making the decision” for who would govern Venezuela.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort as he provided new details on the stunning military operation. --->READ MORE HERE
President Trump told the nation the US would now take over running Venezuela, after strongman Nicolas Maduro was captured “in the dead of night.”
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort as he provided new details on the stunning military operation.
“We’re going to run it, essentially” through the transition, he said.
The logistics of a US-run Venezuela were still being worked out, but Trump said it might involve military “boots on the ground.”
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to,” the president said. “We had boots on the ground last night, at a very high level, actually.”
Later, Trump added, “We’re going to have [a] presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.”
In a strong assertion of US national prerogative in the hemisphere, Trump said he had one-upped the Monroe Doctrine of the nation’s early history.
“They now call it the Don-roe doctrine,” Trump quipped, while flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
He brushed off questions about the US’s record of running countries in Latin America over the last century and even whether it was consistent with his “America First” mantra.
“We’re going to run the country right, it’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly,” Trump said.
The president indicated the military had been “prepared to do a second wave” if needed.
He said his advisors assumed such a wave would be necessary — only one was needed.
He also described an effort to bring back US oil companies who had their infrastructure confiscated by the regime, and use the stolen funds to help compensate Venezuelans who fled to the US.
“We’re going to reimburse people that were taken advantage of,” Trump said.
“We have to rebuild their whole infrastructure.” --->READ MORE HEREFOLLOW LINKS BELOW TO RELEVANT STORIES:
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