President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the US will “run” Venezuela after capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a large-scale military operation, a stunning development that plunged the country into uncertainty after weeks of spiraling tensions.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” he wrote on Truth Social early Saturday morning.
Trump later said the US would play a central role in running the country indefinitely until a formal transition of power can take place, while declining to rule out the possibility of longer-term military involvement in Venezuela.
“We’re going to be running it,” he said from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Venezuela requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to the attack, Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said.
“No cowardly attack will prevail against the strength of this people, who will emerge victorious,” he said on Telegram, sharing the letter sent to the UN.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded the “immediate release” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Rodríguez, who Trump said earlier was sworn in as president, said Venezuela’s territorial integrity was “savagely attacked” by the US operation.
Trump on Saturday morning posted a photo of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, where the Venezuelan president and his wife were held before being transported to New York, where they face charges. The ousted leader and his wife were brought to New York on Saturday evening, and Maduro is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A new indictment filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and shared by Attorney General Pam Bondi alleges that Maduro ran “state sponsored gangs” and facilitated drug trafficking in the country.
Trump said he did not notify members of Congress until after the strike, saying at his news conference at Mar-a-Lago that “Congress has a tendency to leak. It would not be good if they leaked.”
Democratic lawmakers demanded an immediate briefing and criticized the administration for not seeking congressional authorization before the attack, while Republican lawmakers largely applauded the action
Source: Here