I WATCHED MADURO CAPTURE LIKE A TV SHOW – TRUMP
Read Time:2 Minute, 34 Second
By ‘Leke Yusuf
United States President, Donald Trump has described the circumstances in which Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro was captured by US Delta Forces, in the early hours of Saturday.
Trump told Fox News he watched the overnight capture of Maduro and his wife “literally like I was watching a television show”.
“If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence, it was an amazing thing,” Trump says.
He praises his team as having done “an incredible job” and adds “there’s no other country on earth that could do such a manoeuvre”.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Maduro was captured by special operations forces and whisked by helicopters to the Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship in the Caribbean, ahead of his transfer to New York.
The fate of Maduro’s government remains an open question.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is in Russia, four sources familiar with her movements said, stoking confusion about who is next in line to govern the South American country. Russia’s foreign ministry said the report that Rodriguez is in Russia was “fake”.
Details of the overnight intervention have not yet been made public. Trump told Fox the raid had been planned for several days earlier but had been repeatedly delayed because of weather.
Trump said the operation was carried out “in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement,” promising more details at an 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Maduro was captured by a team that included elite U.S. special forces, including the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, a U.S. official told Reuters. Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told him Maduro would stand trial on criminal charges in the U.S. and that no further action was anticipated inside Venezuela.
Maduro was indicted in U.S. federal court in 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges for running what prosecutors called a scheme to send tonnes of cocaine to the U.S. through an alleged “Cartel de Los Soles”. He has always denied that.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X about Maduro and his wife.
In the Panama case, Noriega ended up in prison for 20 years.
Vice-president Rodriguez said she did not know the whereabouts of Maduro or his wife and demanded proof of life.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino condemned the intervention. “In the unity of the people we will find the strength to resist and to triumph,” he said in a video message.
Another senior official, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, appeared on a street wearing a helmet and flak jacket, urging people not to cooperate with the “terrorist enemy.”
With Rodriguez potentially taking the presidency but Padrino and Cabello having significant influence over the military, Venezuelans were nervously guessing what might come next. Analysts say military backing had helped keep Maduro in power so long despite his unpopularity on the streets and significant evidence that he lost national votes.
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