Donald Trump says the United States will govern Venezuela indefinitely after sending in special forces to arrest its president as he slept.
Addressing journalists hours after the shocking capture of Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia in Caracas on Saturday, the president said: ‘We’re going to run the country until as such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
‘We don’t want to be involved with someone else get in and we have the same situation as we had for the last long number of years.
‘So we are going to run the country until we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.’
Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump alleged that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) drug trafficking operation.
The president has accused Maduro and his alleged cartel cronies of flooding the United States with illegal drugs and has charged him with drug smuggling and weapons offenses.
After his capture by the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit, Maduro was flown by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima warship.
He will be taken to New York City to face charges at Manhattan Federal Court and will likely be held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, which currently houses alleged CEO murderer Luigi Mangione.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has been tipped as the country’s next president, but Trump made no mention of her on Saturday.
Shortly before Saturday’s press conference, the president shared an undignified photo of Maduro in a tracksuit after his capture.
He said the Venezuelan president’s wife will also be charged, but did not offer further details.
Trump is seen discussing Nicolas Maduro’s arrest by the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pictured after his capture in a photo shared by President Donald Trump on his TruthSocial website
Maduro was photographed wearing a heavy black plastic eye mask and ear muffs over his ears in an apparent bid to keep his location a secret from him.
He was clad in a gray tracksuit and clutched a plastic water bottle. It is unclear if this is what Maduro was wearing when he was taken or if it was given to him by US forces.
The image was a far cry from his usual appearance in sharp suits or military regalia, with CNN commentators speculating it had been chosen to humiliate the corrupt leader.
There was no sign of Cilia.
Addressing a press conference in Mar-a-Lago Saturday, Trump told journalists that the Venezuelan first lady was part of her husband’s alleged schemes and that she too will face criminal charges in Manhattan.
‘Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice,’ Trump declared.
Earlier on Saturday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Maduro would face drug and weapons trafficking charges originally filed in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office.
Five other Venezuelan officials face the same charges. But the first lady is not among those names and it remains unclear what charges she will face.
Speaking while flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump told of how Maduro was snatched by the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit in the dead of night and taken to the USS Iwo Jima war ship.
He will be transported to New York City to face federal charges of drugs and weapons smuggling.
Shortly after 2am Venezuela time Saturday morning, Delta Force soldiers burst into the Maduros bedroom and captured them.
A source told the network the operation – which struck five Venezuelan sites including three in the country’s capital Caracas – did not result in any casualties.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia were both seized by a US military unit in the early hours of Caracas. Trump said Saturday afternoon that both will face criminal charges in New York City
Trump said the Maduros have been taken to the USS Iwo Jima assault ship and that they’ll later be transported to New York City.
He hailed the operation as ‘brilliant’ in a brief New York Times interview early Saturday.
The president later called into Fox News‘s breakfast show Fox & Friends, excitedly telling its hosts: ‘I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence – it was an amazing thing.’
President Trump says he will hold a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, at 11:30am ET on Saturday.
Explosions were seen ripping across Caracas during the daring raid, with Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab insisting that ‘innocents’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the US operation.
