Trump says the US will “run” Venezuela for now. What do we know about the projects?

Washington- President Trump’s announcement on Saturday that The United States will “run” Venezuela After the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife by the United States, new questions are being asked about the extent of American involvement in the South American country.

Mr. Trump has not given many details about his administration’s plans for the United States’ role in Venezuela, as he talked about the night mission from his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The president had announced on social media a few hours earlier that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been “captured and expelled from the country.” Officials told CBS News the operation was carried out by the U.S. military’s Delta Force, an elite special operations unit.

Maduro and his wife were brought to the United States has face criminal charges What prosecutors have alleged is their participation in a conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism and import “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States. Maduro and his wife arrived at Stewart Airport, just north of New York, on Saturday afternoon, hours after their capture.

With Maduro’s ouster, it is unclear who is in charge of Venezuela or who might lead the country in the future. Mr Trump said it would be “very difficult” for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to take over because she “does not have the support or respect within the country”.

The president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio also had a conversation with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who Mr. Trump said has been sworn in and is “basically willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

But in remarks on state television, Rodriguez said Maduro was the “only president of Venezuela” and demanded his release.

Venezuela held its last presidential election in July 2024, but electoral authorities have not provided detailed vote counts, and the United States and many European countries have rejected Maduro’s claims of victory. The United States under the Biden administration recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as president-elect. González fled into exile in Spain in September 2024 after an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Trump says US will ‘handle it properly’ but provides few details

Mr. Trump said the United States would “lead the country” until there was a “safe, appropriate and wise transition” of power in Venezuela.

“We cannot take the risk of someone else taking power in Venezuela without having the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We have lived through this for decades. We are not going to allow this to happen,” the president said. “We’re there now. And what people don’t understand, but they understand when I say this, we’re there now, but we’re going to stay there until the proper transition can take place.”

He provided no additional details on how the United States would oversee Venezuela, under what authority or whether the United States would play a role in choosing a new leader.

Mr. Trump indicated that senior administration officials — including Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared alongside Mr. Trump on Saturday — would work with a “team” working with the Venezuelan people. However, he did not specify who would be part of this group.

In an interview Saturday evening, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth what it might look like.

“That means we set the terms. President Trump sets the terms. And ultimately he will decide what the iterations of it will be,” Hegseth said. “But it means the drugs stop flowing, it means the oil that was taken from us is finally returned and the criminals are not sent to the United States.”

Role of the oil industry

Asked about the timetable for US intervention, Mr Trump said Venezuela’s “entire infrastructure” needed to be rebuilt. He focused in particular on the prospect of rebuilding the oil industry in a country with one of the world’s largest oil reserves.

“If we left, it would be [Venezuela] “There’s no chance of ever coming back,” he said. “We’re going to run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the biggest oil companies in the world investing billions and billions of dollars and taking money out, using that money in Venezuela, and the biggest beneficiary will be the people of Venezuela.”

When asked about the oil blockade sanctioned of Venezuela imposed by Mr. Trump last month, Hegseth said no oil was entering or leaving the country and that the U.S. military was still ready to intervene in the Caribbean.

“[Mr. Trump] made it clear on the podium today. We are going to bring in American companies. We are going to invest in it. These oil depots are operating at 20% of their capacity. That’s going to change,” Hegseth told CBS News.

Maduro regime figures remain in place

Even though the Trump administration removed Maduro, key members of his government remain in place. Among them are Rodríguez, whom Maduro chose as vice president, as well as Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

Cabello is named as a defendant alongside Maduro and his wife in the case. quashing the indictment dismissed by a federal grand jury in New York as allegedly part of the narco-terrorist plot.

Apparently in a warning to remaining Venezuelan officials, Mr. Trump said the United States was “prepared to mount a second, much larger attack” on Venezuela, if necessary, and that his administration was “not afraid of the troops on the ground.”