NEED TO KNOW
- Donald Trump has spoken out after the United States launched military strikes in Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores
- Trump said the United States is now going to “run” Venezuela while he was speaking from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., residence on Jan. 3
- Maduro is accused by Trump of drug trafficking and “forcing” migration to the United States, as well as using oil money to fund his alleged drug-related crimes — all claims the Venezuelan politician has denied
Donald Trump has addressed the nation following the overnight capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores.
Speaking from his Palm Beach, Fla., residence, Mar-a-Lago, on Saturday, Jan. 3, the president, 79, said the United States is now going to “run” Venezuela.
“No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved, successfully capturing Maduro in the dead of night,” Trump said.
“We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be…we’re gonna run it properly. We’re gonna make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of.”
Asked if there will be troops on the ground amid the U.S. takeover, Trump told reporters, “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level. We’re going to make sure that country is run properly. This is not in vain.”
He continued, “We’re going to run the country right. It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. And it’s gonna make a lot of money. You know they stole our oil. We built that whole industry and they just took it over like we were nothing. So we did something about it. We’re late, but we did something about it.
In his speech, he called the capture of Maduro and Flores “an incredible thing to see…Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost.”
“We’re going to run the country until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. It has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about,” he added. “We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela. We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over, that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to stay until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
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Jesus Vargas/Getty; AFP via Getty
Trump previously confirmed the order of “large-scale strikes” in Venezuela and the capture of Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, in a statement on Truth Social earlier on Jan. 3.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country,” Trump said. “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”
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Maduro is accused by Trump of drug trafficking and “forcing” migration to the United States, as well as using oil money to fund his alleged drug-related crimes.
The Venezuelan president, who stepped into his role back in 2013, has denied all accusations, according to CBS News.
AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos
Officials told CBS News and the BBC that Trump ordered airstrikes on various sites in Venezuela. Among the locations struck were the main military base, Fuerte Tiuna, and the main airbase, La Carlota, as well as El Volcán, a signal antenna site, and La Guaira Port, a seaport on the coast of the Caribbean, David Smolansky, a spokesman for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, told CBS News.
The attacks were denounced in a statement by Maduro, who accused the U.S. of trying to “seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals” and “forcibly break the nation’s political independence,” per the BBC.
The Venezuelan politician also instructed all national defense plans to be implemented, and he urged “all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and condemn this imperialist attack,” the outlet reported.
Previously, the U.S. had launched 30 strikes in targeted areas in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and on speed boats allegedly carrying drugs through the region. More than 110 people have been killed since the strikes began, per the BBC, and U.S. forces have also reportedly confiscated two sanctioned oil tankers while pursuing a third.
Trump previously warned about the imminent order of strikes in Venezuela during a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting, according to CBS News, and the BBC reported that, before the strikes, Maduro said in a Venezuelan state TV interview that he was open to talking with the Trump administration about drug trafficking, oil and migration issues.
