US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were aboard the US warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they will face prosecution in American courts.
US President Donald Trump posted a picture of Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. (Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump)
Trump told Fox News that the United States carried out a lightning military strike on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing Maduro and his wife and spiriting them out of the country.
American officials said the pair will face narco-terrorism charges.
In the interview, Trump said the United States will be making decisions on what is next for Venezuela following the capture of its president.
“We'll be involved in it very much” as to who will govern the country, Trump said.
“We can't take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off,” he said hours after the capture.
Trump said a helicopter was hit during the operation and a few US members were injured, though he believed none were killed.
“A couple of guys were hit, but they came back and they're supposed to be in pretty good shape,” Trump said.
He added that the US lost no aircraft in the operation.
“We got it all back. One of them was hit pretty hard but—a helicopter—but we got it back.
“We had to do it because it's a war,” he said.
Trump also said the United States is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela's oil industry following the operation.
“We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we're going to be very much involved in it,” he said.
Trump warned that Maduro loyalists who remain loyal face a bleak future, according to statements released from the interview.
He also said he has a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that China will not have a problem with the operation and “they will get oil”.
Trump said the United States is going to look at whether opposition leader Maria Corina Machado should lead the country, adding that Venezuela currently has a vice president.
Machado said she will bring order to the country and free political prisoners.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernandez told The Associated Press that Maduro and his wife were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation when they were captured.
“That's where they bombed," he said. “And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”
Two sources familiar with the operation told Reuters that the CIA had a source within the Venezuelan government who helped track and locate Maduro.
Israel welcomed the removal of Maduro, with its foreign minister saying the Venezuelan leader headed a “network of drugs and terror”.
Russia urged the United States to release Maduro and his wife. In a statement issued by the Russian foreign ministry, it said: “In light of confirmed reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are in the United States, we strongly urge the American leadership to reconsider its position and release the legally elected president of a sovereign country and his wife.”
