'We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,' Donald Trump said at a press conference following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Le Monde with AP and AF
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves after snatching leader Nicolas Maduro out of the country during a bombing raid on Caracas. Trump's announcement came hours after a lightning attack in which special forces grabbed Maduro and his wife, while airstrikes pounded multiple sites, stunning the capital city.
"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump told a press conference. Trump did not go into detail about what he meant but told a press conference in Florida that a "group" would be "running" Venezuela. "We're designating people," he said, mentioning that cabinet officials standing with him would be in charge.
Trump brushed aside Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a potential interim leader of Venezuela. "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 told a news conference. "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect."
He indicated he could instead work with Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez. Trump told reporters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "just had a conversation with her, and she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again."
Trump also said he would allow American oil companies to head into Venezuela to tap its massive crude reserves. "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," Trump told a press conference.
'Not afraid of boots on the ground'
Trump said "the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect." As part of a weeks-long military pressure campaign against Venezuela in the run-up to the raid, US forces seized at least two oil tankers that Washington said were subject to US sanctions. Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019. It produces about a million barrels of crude per day. It sells most on the black market at steep discounts.
Trump indicated that US troops could be deployed in Venezuela. The US is "not afraid of boots on the ground," he said. He warned other political and military figures in Venezuela, saying that "what happened to Maduro can happen to them." He said that his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro – with whom he has sparred in recent months – should "watch his ass."
"He's making cocaine and they're sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass," Trump said of Petro. Petro described Washington's actions as an "assault on the sovereignty" of Latin America and said they would result in a humanitarian crisis.
Rubio, a sworn foe of Cuba's communist government, also issued a warning to that country's leaders. "If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned at least a little bit," he said at the press conference.
150 aircraft used
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores surrendered to US forces in Caracas before being extracted from the country, a top US general said at the press conference. Maduro, 63, and his wife "gave up" without a struggle and there was "no loss of US life," General Dan Caine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the press conference.
The raid took "months of planning and rehearsal," and more than 150 US aircraft were used, he told reporters. "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," Caine said.
Trump said the US military caused a blackout in the Venezuelan capital Caracas so it could carry out the operation. "It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have," Trump said.
The 79-year-old Republican posted a picture of Maduro in custody on a US naval ship wearing a blindfold, handcuffs and what looked like noise-canceling ear muffs. He and his wife were being taken to New York to face narcotics and terrorism charges.
