Trump says U.S. will "run" Venezuela following capture of Maduro
The United States will temporarily run Venezuela until a political transition is completed, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday, hours after he announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Speaking at a news conference, Trump said the United States would administer the country on an interim basis until what he described as a “safe, proper and judicious transition” could be carried out. He added that the United States did not want to oversee a change that would lead to “the same situation that we have had for a long period of time.”
Trump said major American oil companies would enter Venezuela to repair damaged energy infrastructure and restart production to stabilize the economy during the transition.
The Trump administration stated that Maduro faces drug-related charges in the United States. Earlier, Trump reported that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been taken into U.S. custody and were being transferred to New York to face those charges.
Details of how long the interim arrangement would last or how it would be implemented were not provided. The U.S. president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, whom he said had been sworn in as interim president.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the U.S. president said on Truth Social that U.S. forces, working alongside U.S. law enforcement, had carried out a large-scale operation in Venezuela and that President Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of the country.
