President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and stated that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the Country.”
The announcement on Trump’s social media platform was made just before 4:30 a.m. On Saturday, just a few hours after multiple explosions echoed through Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas, witnesses reported the events, while photos and videos captured plumes of smoke and a significant fireball illuminating the night sky.
In a surprising statement that raised concerns among some observers, Trump, who ran on the platform of “America First” and opposed foreign entanglements, declared during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an unspecified “period of time.”
He said that because there is “nobody to take over,” a group made up of some of his Cabinet members and a local team in Venezuela would be “running the country.
“We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world go in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela, and the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela,” Trump said.
The president indicated that U.S. troops might participate in the effort. “We have no fear of boots on the ground,” he stated.
He stated that the U.S. was prepared to execute a “much bigger” second wave of attacks if necessary.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s minority leader, blasted Trump’s declaration.
The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” he said in a press release. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”
Trump stated that the operation was conducted in collaboration with U.S. law enforcement. Members of Congress indicated that the military, reportedly including the elite Delta Force, was positioned to assist with that law enforcement operation.
No immediate reports indicated any U.S. military fatalities during the operation. But according to Trump and Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Tom Cotton, a chopper was struck and some Americans were hurt.
However, Trump and Senator Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that some Americans were injured and that a helicopter was struck.
“I spoke with Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio this morning. He did share that we did have wounded personnel, but no killed, but that is never guaranteed in advance,” Cotton said on Fox News.
The operation took place in the midst of growing hostilities with Maduro and the Venezuelan government, as well as inquiries into the motivation behind a string of boat attacks against purported drug-shipping ships.
The president went into more detail about the operation later in an interview with Fox News, saying the attack was something nobody else could have done, and “extremely complex” executed with “speed and violence.”
“The whole maneuver, the landings, the number of aircraft which were massive number, the number of helicopters, the different type of helicopters, different type of fighter jets, we had a fighter jet for every possible situation,” he said in the phone interview.
“And really they just broke in, and they broke into places that were not really able to be, broke into, you know, steel doors that was were put there for just this reason, and they got taken out in a matter of seconds,” he added.
The president said Maduro tried to escape, but was “bum rushed” by U.S. forces, according to the interview.
He said he had given Maduro off-ramps recently.
“Well, basically, I said, you have to give up. You have to surrender,” Trump said in the interview.
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts” regarding a range of charges in New York, including “narco-terrorism conspiracy,” “cocaine importation conspiracy,” and weapons charges. For years, Maduro has been confronting the charges in New York.
A federal indictment unsealed on Saturday against Maduro and his family alleges that he was “at the forefront” of a narco-terrorism conspiracy responsible for importing tons of cocaine into the United States.
A federal grand jury in New York issued an indictment last month, charging Maduro with permitting “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members.”
The indictment identified two family members, Maduro’s wife Cilia and his son Nicolas, as involved in the alleged conspiracy. In total, six defendants were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.
According to sources familiar with the situation, a plane transporting Maduro arrived in New York on Saturday afternoon.
Maduro was anticipated to travel to New York City via helicopter, joined by officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was subsequently anticipated to travel by motorcade to a designated location in the city for processing prior to being detained in jail.
Although the sources did not indicate the specific location where Maduro will be detained, it is customary for defendants awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan to be held at MDC-Brooklyn.
The operation resulting in Maduro’s capture was executed by the Army’s Delta Force, following the CIA’s identification of the leader’s exact location, as reported by two individuals knowledgeable about the operation. Delta Force is a highly specialized unit of soldiers adept in covert counterterrorism missions and hostage rescue operations.
A source indicated, “the CIA had a small team covertly on the ground beginning in August that was able to offer remarkable insight into Maduro’s lifestyle, which facilitated his capture.”
A source indicated that CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Rubio, top aide Stephen Miller, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “formed a core team working on this issue for months with consistent meetings and phone calls, sometimes even daily … often meeting both with the president and separately.”
Trump informed Fox News that he watched every facet of the operation from Florida.
“He was in a, in a house that was more like a fortress than a house. It had steel doors. It had what they call a safety space,” Trump said, adding that Maduro did not make it into the space before being captured.
The president announced that, in preparation, the U.S. military constructed a replica house to train for the operation.
According to Trump, Maduro was transported by helicopter to the US Iwo Jima and would subsequently be taken to New York.
“The helicopters took ’em out, and they went by helicopter in a nice flight. I’m sure they loved it,” he said.
A source informed ABC News that Trump had authorized the capture of Maduro several days prior, with troops prepared to act on Christmas Day; however, their operation was postponed due to military airstrikes in Nigeria targeting ISIS. The individual indicated that subsequent opportunities were delayed in part because of the weather.
The details of the operation were initially reported by CBS.
During a concise phone interview with The New York Times, President Trump expressed his enthusiasm regarding what he described as the successful mission to capture Maduro, whom the U.S. has identified as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization since a designation made in November.
“A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump told The New York Times. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”
When questioned about whether he had pursued congressional authorization for the operation or what the next steps would be for Venezuela, Trump indicated that he would discuss those issues during his news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning.
