Shafaq News– Washington
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States would assume control of Venezuela after an overnight operation in Caracas captured President Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking at a press conference, Trump warned that the US was “ready to stage a second and much larger attack” if necessary, adding that American energy companies would now play a “major role” in Venezuela’s oil sector. The country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
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Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are aboard the USS Iwo Jima en route to New York, where they face federal charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation. US Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed that a 25-page indictment accuses Maduro of overseeing a two-decade drug trafficking operation that allegedly funneled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro was first indicted by US prosecutors in 2020, but pressure from the Trump administration intensified last year. In November, Washington designated members of Maduro’s inner circle as a foreign terrorist organization and raised the reward for his arrest to $50 million.
Asked whether Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado could lead the country following Maduro’s removal, Trump said, “We’ll have to look at it.” Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, has called for installing exiled opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
The operation followed months of escalating US pressure on Venezuela, including more than 35 strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels that killed at least 115 people, as well as the seizure of oil tankers and the imposition of a naval blockade.