Donald Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela and ‘fix oil infrastructure’

The United States will “lead” Venezuela until a “safe, appropriate and wise transition” can be ensured, Donald Trump said, after US strikes led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

US oil companies would also repair Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”, the US president said.

The United States launched strikes against Venezuela on Saturday morning in which Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured by American forces and expelled from the country.

Venezuela announced a state of national emergency and denounced “military aggression”, with the country’s vice president saying Maduro was its sole leader.

Maduro and Flores were flown out of the capital, Caracas, aboard a U.S. helicopter early Saturday morning and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima to an undisclosed location in the Caribbean Sea.

They were then flown to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being transferred to another plane to travel to New York state, and then flown by helicopter to the New York Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and Flores were charged in the Southern District of New York.

Both men were charged with conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism and importation of cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil, in American courts,” Bondi wrote on X.

Previously, Maduro had vehemently denied being a cartel leader and accused the United States of using its “war on drugs” as a pretext to try to remove him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Trump said at a news conference before Maduro arrived in New York: “The oil sector in Venezuela has been bankrupt, totally bankrupt for a long time.

“We’re going to see our very large American oil companies, the largest in the world, come in, spend billions of dollars, repair the badly damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

The South American country has about 303 billion barrels of crude, representing about 20 percent of the world’s oil resources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

It’s unclear how exactly the United States plans to “lead” Venezuela, but the president said it would be a “group” of people who would lead the charge.

“We’re going to run it as a group and we’re going to make sure it works properly,” Trump said.

When asked by reporters who in Venezuela would be part of that group, Trump said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s vice president.

Trump said Rodríguez had expressed his willingness to do “whatever the United States asks.”

However, speaking on state television after Trump’s remarks, Rodríguez called Maduro “the only president in Venezuela,” adding that the government was ready to defend itself.

Earlier, Rodríguez was the first Venezuelan official to speak publicly after the U.S. strikes, urging the United States to provide proof that Maduro and his wife were alive.

Explosions were heard around Caracas early Saturday morning as military bases were targeted by US forces. Over the next two hours and 20 minutes, dozens of U.S. planes were seen in the sky as special forces entered Maduro’s hideout to retrieve him.

Venezuela’s long-time allies have strongly condemned the US actions. Russia accused the United States of committing “a deeply worrying and reprehensible act of armed aggression.” China’s Foreign Ministry said it was “deeply shocked and strongly condemns” the use of force against a sovereign country and its president.

Many Latin American countries, including Venezuela’s neighbors Colombia and Brazil, have also condemned the actions. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called them a “criminal attack,” while Trump’s ally in Argentina, Javier Milei, wrote “freedom advances” on social media.

U.S. allies were more reserved in their responses, calling for a peaceful transition of power. Sir Keir Starmer said the UK “regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president” and “shed no tears over the end of his rule”, but called for a “safe and peaceful transition to legitimate government”.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed similar sentiments and called for peace. A new government must be “respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people,” Macron wrote in a message on X.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the legality of the US operation was “complex” and warned that “political instability must not arise in Venezuela.”

Maduro’s capture is the culmination of a growing pressure campaign against his government by the Trump administration over the past 12 months, which has resulted in sanctions and sanctions. place a large naval force in the region.

Since September, the United States has launched more than 30 strikes against what it says are boats used for drug trafficking in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing more than 100 people.

The Trump administration has described the strikes as attacks on terrorists trying to smuggle fentanyl and cocaine into the United States, but it has provided no evidence to support that claim.

With the exception of two survivors – a Colombian and an Ecuadorian – none of the identities of those on board have been made public.

Earlier this week, the conflict escalated further when the The United States carried out a strike on a “port area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats.

Fentanyl is produced primarily in Mexico and reaches the United States almost exclusively by land through its southern border.

Counternarcotics experts have also described Venezuela as a relatively minor player in the global drug trade, acting primarily as a country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.