US to run Venezuela for now, Trump says after capturing Maduro in extraordinary assault | EUROtoday

The United States will run Venezuela till there’s a peaceable transition, Donald Trump has stated after American forces captured its president in a unprecedented in a single day assault that has despatched shockwaves world wide.

The US president stated he was “not afraid to put boots on the ground” and warned a second wave of assaults on Venezuela might happen “if we need to do so” after Nicolas Maduro, who has dominated the nation for almost 16 years, was snatched from a army base by the US military’s Delta pressure.

Explosions had been reported throughout the nation and low flying plane had been seen in Venezuela’s capital within the early hours of Saturday, as its authorities stated the US had focused civilian and army websites in a number of states in what it described as an “imperialist attack”, urging residents to take to the streets.

Mr Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been on Saturday night time aboard a US warship on their method to New York, the place they’re set to face felony fees. A photograph of the 63-year-old in US captivity was shared by President Trump on social media.

The operation – the fruits of months of escalating Trump administration stress on the oil-rich South American nation – has been condemned by a number of world leaders, in addition to some senior politicians within the US, regardless of lots of them welcoming the tip of the Maduro regime.

The authorized authority for the assault shouldn’t be instantly clear and questions have been raised in regards to the fast way forward for Venezuela, with President Trump insisting the US would seize management of the nation and its oil infrastructure.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Mr Trump stated at a Mar-a-Lago information convention the place he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives”.

He claimed the American presence was already in place, although there have been no fast indicators that the US was working the nation.

“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 added.

The US government does not recognise Mr Maduro, who last appeared on state television on Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.

Mr Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the US justice department released a new indictment on Saturday of Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, accusing them of a role in narco-terrorism conspiracy.

US attorney general Pam Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple would “quickly face the complete wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”.

Venezuelans expressed deep concern over Donald Trump’s shock statement that the US was planning to “run the country” and his apparent endorsement of Maduro’s second-in-command, Delcy Rodriguez, as an interim leader of that transition.

“They have not clarified the legal, political or the temporal framework of this leadership – who’s going to lead?” asked Maria Corina Roldan Robles, a Venezuelan political analyst currently based in Chile. She said they were concerned that instead of US cooperating with opposition figures like Nobel Prize winner Maria Corina Machado or Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who was recognised as winning the 2024 elections, it appeared they were going for “Chavismo under a different leadership”.

In the press conference Trump dismissed Machado as lacking “support or respect” to take over. He did not even mention Gonzalez, despite the fact that the Venezuelan opposition leader was recognised by the Biden administration as the “president-elect” in the wake of the 2024 vote.

Instead, Trump confirmed that secretary of state Marco Rubio had had a lengthy conversation with Rodriguez, who Robles said was “one of the most central pillars of the regime that governed alongside Maduro”.

Trump said Rodriguez had already been sworn in as interim leader and was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” The concern in Venezuela is that the US had been positioning Rodriguez as a “person that could be considered for a transition” months go, Robles added.

Ana Maria Diez, the head of the Coalition of Venezuela a union of civil society organisations and an advisor on UN mechanism said that while people were celebrating the capture of Maduro, there were growing fears about Trump’s intentions towards Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

“President Trump has repeatedly referred to ‘our oil’ when speaking of Venezuelan resources. It is important to remind him that these resources belong to the Venezuelan people, who need humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of the country now more than ever, not the rule of outsiders,” she told The Independent.

The military operation has drawn widespread condemnation around the world, but members of Trump’s administration, including vice president JD Vance and Mr Rubio, defended the action and denied questions of illegality.

Venezuela’s allies Russia, Cuba, and Iran swiftly condemned the strikes as a violation of national sovereignty. President Javier Milei of Argentina reacted to the news that Mr Maduro had been captured with a political slogan he often deploys to celebrate right-wing advances: “Long dwell freedom, dammit!”

Meanwhile Mexico denounced the intervention and Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it crossed “an unacceptable line.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK played no role in the military strikes on Venezuela, but added the UK “sheds no tears” about the end of Maduro’s regime.

“I reiterated my support for international law this morning. The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” he added.

In a demonstration of how polarising a figure Mr Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to deplore his capture and celebrate it.

According to statements from residents of the western areas, armed groups have begun patrolling, acting as an alternative to official state security forces, displaying long and short firearms while on foot and on motorcycles.

“We never imagined this could happen; we weren’t prepared for an attack. We just spent everything on the Christmas holidays. Now we have to see what happens and buy as much as we can in case we can’t go out anymore.”

Similarly, motorcyclists and drivers in gasoline lines stated, “We have to fill our tanks because we don’t know if this will leave us stranded again, and then we won’t have any way to get around.”

The strike followed a months-long Trump administration pressure campaign on the Venezuelan leader, including a major build-up of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs.

Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels – the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September.

As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115, according to the Trump administration.

Mr Trump said that the US is engaged in an “armed battle” with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as a essential to stem the move of medication into the US.