President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will temporarily oversee the affairs of Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking on an NBC News special report, Trump said, “We are going to run the country until a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved in someone else getting in with the same situation.”
He further reiterated that the U.S. will remain involved in Venezuelan affairs only until a legitimate transition of power is established.
Although the president did not provide a specific timeline for the transition, he emphasized that U.S. involvement would be limited to ensuring a stable and orderly transfer of power to new Venezuelan leadership.
The announcement comes after what Trump described as an extraordinary U.S. military operation in Caracas late Friday night and early Saturday, conducted under his direction.
In his words, “Overwhelming air, land, and sea forces were used to launch a spectacular assault,” Trump said, calling it a strike unlike anything “people haven’t seen since World War II.” He made the statement in a separate announcement at the White House.
According to him, the operation targeted a heavily fortified military stronghold in the heart of the Venezuelan capital to bring what he called the “outlaw dictator,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, to justice.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured during the operation.
Both are expected to be transferred to a court in the Southern District of New York to face multiple serious charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
