Maduro's VP demands release of Venezuela's 'only president'

After Maduro’s capture, Trump says US going to ‘run’ Venezuela until orderly transition

President does not provide specifics, but says Washington is ‘not afraid of boots on the ground’; also tells Colombian president he should ‘watch his ass’

WASHINGTON — Following the US attack on Venezuela and capture of its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro, US President Donald Trump announced plans Saturday to put the country under American control for now, including by deploying US forces if necessary.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.”

Trump did not go into detail about what he meant, but said: “We’re going to be running it with a group.”

“We’re designating people,” he said, mentioning that cabinet officials standing with him would be in charge.

It was unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela. Despite the dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in part of Caracas and captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, US forces have no control over the country itself, and Maduro’s government appears to still be in charge.

The president did say American forces had been prepared for a “second wave” of strikes if necessary, while adding that “now it’s probably not.”

Trump’s comments about an open-ended presence in Venezuela echoed past leadership changes in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which ended in US withdrawals after years of occupation. He said he was open to the idea of sending US forces into Venezuela.

“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said.

Trump did not provide specific answers to repeated questions from reporters about how the US would run Venezuela.

Trump posted on his Truth Social account a photo that he said showed Maduro in custody, including blindfolded and in a sweatsuit.

US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media: “The hour of freedom has arrived.” She called for the opposition’s candidate in the 2024 election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to “immediately” assume the presidency.

But Trump scotched any expectation that Machado should emerge as Venezuela’s new leader. She doesn’t have “support or respect” there, he said.

Trump: US to be reimbursed

A US occupation “won’t cost us a penny” because the United States would be reimbursed from the “money coming out of the ground,” Trump said, referring to Venezuela’s oil reserves, a subject he returned to repeatedly during Saturday’s press conference.

Trump said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in touch with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is Maduro’s presumptive successor.

“‘We’ll do whatever you need,'” Trump quoted Rodriguez as saying. “She really doesn’t have a choice.”

Reuters could not immediately corroborate the exchange, and Rodriguez was defiant when she appeared on Venezuelan television hours later, along with other top officials, to decry what she called a kidnapping.

“We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said, calling Maduro “the only president of Venezuela.”

Four sources familiar with her movements said Rodriguez was in Russia. The Russian foreign ministry dismissed the report about Rodriguez’s presence in the country as “fake.”

Trump also seemed to threaten his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, at the press conference, saying: “He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass.”

Petro described Washington’s actions as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and said they would result in a humanitarian crisis.

Potential power vacuum

The removal of Maduro, who led Venezuela with a heavy hand for more than 12 years, potentially opens a power vacuum in the Latin American country.

Any serious destabilization in the nation of 28 million people threatens to hand Trump the type of quagmire that has marked US foreign policy for much of the 21st century, like the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US has not made such a direct intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to depose military leader Manuel Noriega over allegations that he led a drug-running operation. The United States has leveled similar charges against Maduro, accusing him of running a “narco-state” and rigging the 2024 election.

Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those claims and said Washington was intent on taking control of his nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.

The streets of Venezuela appeared calm as the sun rose on Saturday. Soldiers patrolled some parts, and some small pro-Maduro crowds gathered in Caracas.

Others, however, expressed relief.

“I’m happy, I doubted for a moment that it was happening because it’s like a movie,” said merchant Carolina Pimentel, 37, in the city of Maracay. “It’s all calm now, but I feel like at any moment everyone will be out celebrating.”

Venezuelan officials condemned Saturday’s intervention. “In the unity of the people we will find the strength to resist and to triumph,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a video message.

While various Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 vote, direct US action revives painful memories of past interventions and is generally strongly opposed by governments and populations in the region.

Trump’s action recalls the Monroe Doctrine, laid out in 1823 by President James Monroe, laying the US claim to influence in the region, as well as the “gunboat diplomacy” seen under Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.

Venezuelan allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the strikes as a violation of sovereignty. Tehran urged the UN Security Council to stop the “unlawful aggression.”

Among major Latin American nations, Argentina’s President Javier Milei lauded Venezuela’s new “freedom,” while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said it crossed “an unacceptable line.”