US President Donald Trump said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been “captured and flown out of the Country” early on Saturday morning confirming a “large scale strike” by the United States.
The operation was codenamed `Operation Absolute Resolve’ involving airstrikes in Caracas and other cities, culminating in the capture and removal of Maduro by U.S. forces.
Trump posted a picture that he said showed Maduro on the USS Iwo Jima. He is shown in the picture with earplugs and blindfolded.
The mission to apprehend Maduro was executed by the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, an elite special operations team.
Earlier, US carried out large scale strikes in different locations including military establishments in Venezuelan capital Caracas on Saturday morning.
Venezuela claimed the strikes claimed the lives of civilians and military people and the Maduro administration has accused the US of engaging in an oil grab.
Venezuela has denounced “extremely serious military aggression” and declared a state of emergency.
Meanwhile, during a press conference, Trump declared that the United States will temporarily “run” Venezuela in order to “get the oil flowing.”
Maduro is anticipated to be charged federally in the United States for drug trafficking and collaborating with gangs that have been classified as terrorist groups which Maduro refused.
Donald Trump said, the United States will “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
He continues by saying that US oil corporations will “start making money for the country” and repair Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure”
According to him, the US is “ready” to launch a second “and much larger” strike on the nation if necessary, and no US personnel were killed in the operation.
The US attorney general Pam Bondi said, Maduro will “face the full wrath of American justice” after he was charged with cocaine and guns in New York.
With the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and many other warships stationed in the Caribbean, the strikes come after months of U.S. military buildup in the area.
The United States has taken control of two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, launched strikes over thirty vessels that the government claims were transporting drugs, and attacked what President Trump referred to as “the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”