Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela after Maduro seizure
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WHAT in the blazes?! Plumes of fire overwhelm Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, after a series of explosions in Caracas on 3 January. The ‘large-scale military strike’ came after US President Donald Trump (right) raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela, accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (left) of leading a trafficking organization that aims to destabilize the US by flooding it with drugs, reports say. Maduro in turn alleged that Washington has its eyes on the Latin American country’s oil and mineral resources.
LUIS JAIMES /AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States will “run” Venezuela and tap its vast oil reserves after U.S. forces seized President Nicolas Maduro during a bombing raid on Caracas.
Trump spoke hours after a rapid operation in which special forces captured Maduro and his wife as airstrikes hit multiple targets in the Venezuelan capital.
“We're going to be running it with a group,” Trump told a news conference in Florida. “We're designating people,” he added, gesturing to cabinet members beside him.
Trump also suggested U.S. troops could be deployed in Venezuela, saying the United States is “not afraid of boots on the ground.”
Though framed as a law enforcement operation, Trump made clear that regime change and control of Venezuela’s oil industry were central goals.
“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,” he said.
“We'll be selling large amounts of oil,” he added.
Trump posted a photo of Maduro in custody aboard a U.S. naval ship, wearing a blindfold and handcuffs. Maduro and his wife were being taken to New York to face narcotics and terrorism charges.
Trump dismisses opposition leader
U.S.-backed opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, declared online that “the hour of freedom has arrived,” and urged opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to assume the presidency.
Trump rejected that idea, saying Machado lacks “support or respect” in Venezuela. He said he could work instead with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, calling her “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
Trump said the U.S. presence would not be brief.
“We're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.”
The United Nations secretary-general said he was “deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.” China condemned the U.S. attack, while France warned that a solution for Venezuela cannot “be imposed from outside.”
