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Trump says US will ‘steer’ Venezuela and sell its oil after seizure of Nicolas Maduro
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Trump says US will ‘steer’ Venezuela and sell its oil after seizure of Nicolas Maduro

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US President Donald Trump said the United States will do the same Venezuela ‘running’ and tapping into its vast oil reserves after ripping left-wing leader Nicolas Maduro out of the country in a bombing of Caracas.
Trump’s announcement came hours later a quick attack in which special forces seized Maduro and his wife, while airstrikes stormed multiple locations and destroyed the capital.
Trump did not go into detail about what he meant, but said at a news conference in Florida: “We’re going to run it with a group.”
“We are appointing people,” he said, noting that Cabinet officials next to him would be in charge.
Another surprise was that Trump indicated that US troops could be deployed in Venezuela.

The US is “not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said.

Although the operation is being framed as a law enforcement action, Trump made clear that regime change and Venezuela’s oil wealth are the main targets.
“We will have our very large oil companies in the United States, the largest in the world, step in and spend billions of dollars to fix the seriously broken infrastructure,” he said.
“We are going to sell large quantities of oil,” he said.
Trump posted a photo of Maduro in custody on a US Navy ship, wearing a blindfold, handcuffs and what appeared to be noise-dampening earmuffs.

Maduro and his wife were taken to New York to face narcotics and terrorism charges.

Trump fires opposition leader

US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media: “the hour of freedom has come” after the attack.

She called on the opposition candidate in the 2024 elections, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to “immediately” assume the presidency.
Trump has quashed any expectations that Machado would emerge as Venezuela’s new leader, saying she has no “support or respect” there.
He indicated he might instead work with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying: “She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, Rodriguez emphasized in a live speech that Maduro is the country’s “sole president” and that Venezuela is “ready to defend our natural resources.”

In his speech, Trump also made it clear that the American presence is unlikely to be short-lived.

“We are here now, but we will remain until the right transition can take place.”
The head of the United Nations said he was “deeply concerned that the rules of international law are not being respected.”

China, a supporter of Maduro’s far-left regime, said it “strongly condemns” the US attack, while France warned that a solution for troubled Venezuela cannot be “imposed from outside.”

Blackout and bombing

Venezuelans had braced for attacks as U.S. forces, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, massed off the coast for months.

Residents of Caracas woke up around 2 a.m. (local time) to explosions and the buzzing of military helicopters. Airstrikes hit a major military base and an airbase, among others, for almost an hour, Agence France-Presse journalists said.

The bombing turned out to be just part of a more ambitious plan to overthrow Maduro and bring him to American soil where he would be charged with drug trafficking.
Trump said the attack started with a partial blackout caused by American “expertise.”
The top US military officer, General Dan Caine, said 150 aircraft took part in the operation, supporting troops trying to seize Machado by helicopter, using months of intelligence on the leader’s daily habits – down to “what he ate” and what pets he kept.
Maduro, 63, and his wife gave up without a fight and there was no loss of American life, he said.
Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of La Guaira, near the heavily bombed airport, told Agence France-Presse that the blasts “lifted me out of bed and I immediately thought: ‘God, the day has come.'”

Within hours of the operation, Caracas was eerily quiet, with police stationed outside public buildings and the smell of smoke wafting through the streets.

Shifting justifications

The US and many European governments already failed to recognize Maduro’s legitimacy, saying he stole elections in both 2018 and 2024.

Maduro – in power since 2013 after taking over from left-wing mentor Hugo Chavez – has long accused Trump of seeking regime change to control Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Trump said the extraordinary kidnapping of a foreign country’s leader was justified because of his claim that Venezuela is responsible for mass drug deaths in the United States.
But Trump has offered several justifications for aggressive policies toward Venezuela, at times highlighting illegal migration, narcotics trafficking and the country’s oil industry.
He had previously avoided openly calling for regime change – probably mindful of his nationalist political base’s aversion to foreign entanglements.
Several members of Congress quickly questioned the legality of the operation. However, Trump’s key ally Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said it was “decisive and justified.”

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