US hits Venezuela with large-scale strike, captures President Maduro, wife
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large-scale strike” on the South American country.
“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.
“This operation was done in conjunction with US law enforcement,” Trump added, saying he would give a news conference at 11:00am (1600 GMT; 9pm PKT) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
In a brief phone interview with a US newspaper, Trump hailed the “brilliant” operation.
“A lot of good planning and a lot of great, great troops and great people,” the paper quoted Trump as saying.
Venezuela has since demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the US attacks.
“Faced with the criminal aggression committed by the US government against our homeland, we have requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which is responsible for upholding international law,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.
Maduro indicted on drug, weapon charges
In a post on X, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been charged in the Southern District of New York.
The charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
“They (Maduro and Flores) will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she wrote.
“On behalf of the entire US DOJ (Department of Justice), I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American people, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”
“A new dawn for Venezuela! The tyrant is gone. He will now — finally — face justice for his crimes,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on X.
US Senator Mike Lee said the country had completed its military action, quoting Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“He anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody,” Lee, a Republican initially critical of the operation, wrote on X after what he said was a telephone call with Rubio.
Rubio, meanwhile, uploaded a screenshot of one of his old posts on X today, which claimed Maduro was not the president of Venezuela. Monitoring Desk
