Trump said U.S. will run Venezuela after deposing Nicolás Maduro

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will run Venezuela at Saturday morning’s press conference, following the U.S. hit on Venezuela and the extraction of its president, Nicolás Maduro.

“We are going to run the country until such time, until we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said. 

He also touched on Venezuela’s oil reserve. "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so," he said.

Background

Today, the people of Venezuela's capital, Caracas, were woken up at around 2 a.m. local time by several explosions and low-flying aircraft strikes administered by the United States. 

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the U.S. hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” that captured the country’s current president, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The overnight U.S. Army's Delta Force operation was confirmed and announced by President Donald Trump on social media. 

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

The attack came after the recent CIA drone strikes on two oil tankers off Venezuela and the launching of deadly strikes on more than 30 boats that the U.S. claimed were carrying drugs. 

Following last night’s strikes, Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said there was no information on the whereabouts of Maduro or his wife. In an audio played on state television, she demanded immediate "proof of life of President Maduro” and added that Venezuela condemns what she called a “brutal and bloody attack.”

“The message is very clear: the instructions are to activate our citizen security forces and go out in defense of our people,” she said. 

Republican Senator Mike Lee said Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that Maduro would face criminal charges in the U.S. 

He also stated Rubio did not “anticipate any further action in Venezuela.”

A state of national emergency has been declared in Venezuela following the strikes. 

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said in a video posted to social media early Saturday that all armed forces of the country would be deployed following “Maduro's orders” and called the strike “the worst aggression” ever against Venezuela. 

“Let's not succumb to the panic the enemy seeks to instill,” he said. 

In a social media post, Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General, serving as the top law enforcement officer in the U.S. federal government, said Maduro and his wife will face criminal charges after an indictment in New York.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she stated. “A huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”