(Bloomberg) —<\/p>\n
US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an early morning raid, sending him to the US to face criminal charges following a series of airstrikes that mark an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s months-long campaign against the country.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,\u201d President Donald Trump wrote on social media Saturday.<\/p>\n
WATCH: The US launches airstrikes against Venezuela and captures President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife. They have both been flown back to the US. Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted, with the Venezuelan leader facing charges of \u201cNarco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said there would be a news conference at 11 am New York time at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In an interview with Fox News ahead of the briefing, Trump said Maduro had wanted to negotiate \u201cat the end\u201d but that he had decided that the US has \u201cgot to do it.\u201d The US president said Maduro was on a US ship and being taken to New York.<\/p>\n
The operation had been planned for four days ago but delayed due to bad weather, he said, adding that were \u201ca few injuries\u201d in the Venezuela operation but no deaths among US forces. <\/p>\n
Capturing Maduro marks an unprecedented intervention and a stunning fall for the Venezuelan leader who became president in 2013. The strikes prompted condemnations from Maduro supporters including Russia\u2019s foreign ministry and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who called for a United Nations Security Council meeting, while Trump allies including Argentina President Javier Milei celebrated the news.<\/p>\n
Maduro had already been the target of a US pressure campaign dating to Trump\u2019s first term. The Trump administration has accused him of leading a drug-trafficking organization that represented a national security threat, while the US president has also made reference to the country\u2019s vast oil reserves.<\/p>\n
He reiterated his interest in Venezuelan energy Saturday, saying that the US is going to be \u201cstrongly involved\u201d in the country\u2019s oil industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I say we have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we\u2019re going to be very much involved in it,\u201d Trump said in the Fox News interview.<\/p>\n
\u2018Off Ramps\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump had offered Maduro \u201cmultiple off ramps\u201d on the condition that \u201cthe drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,\u201d Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X. \u201cMaduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has been assembling American military forces in the region for months, authorized attacks on alleged drug-running boats and orchestrated a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going to and leaving Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Last month, Trump warned his campaign would \u201conly get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called Venezuela\u2019s cooperation with narco-traffickers and terrorists a direct threat to US national security.<\/p>\n
Some Democratic lawmakers took to social media to criticize the military operation before the capture of Maduro had been announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis war is illegal, it\u2019s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year,\u201d said Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. \u201cThere is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, posted on X Saturday that Rubio told him in a phone call that he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody.<\/p>\n
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also said she spoke with Rubio and called for restraint, while reiterating the bloc\u2019s view that Maduro lacks legitimacy.<\/p>\n
\u2018Aggression\u2019 Condemned<\/p>\n
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the US\u2019s \u201cact of armed aggression against Venezuela,\u201d saying that it\u2019s important to avoid further escalation. In a social media post, Colombia\u2019s Petro rejected \u201cthe aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInternal conflicts between peoples are resolved by those same peoples in peace,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat is the principle of the self-determination of peoples, which forms the foundation of the United Nations system.\u201d<\/p>\n
WATCH: Video shows nighttime explosions in Venezuela.Source: Validated User Generated Content and AP) <\/p>\n
The first explosions in the capital were heard about 2 a.m. local time and aircraft could be seen and heard overhead for hours, according to residents. Multiple explosions centered around the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas.<\/p>\n
The Venezuelan government said military and civilian targets had been hit across three states, adding that this marked an attempt by the US to seize the country\u2019s oil resources. Unconfirmed video footage showed aircraft flying over Caracas and what appeared to be a barrage of missile strikes on targets in urban areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call upon the peoples and governments of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world to mobilize in active solidarity in the face of this imperial aggression,\u201d the government said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u2018Lethal, Powerful\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump detailed the mission in his Fox News interview Saturday, saying US forces had trained in a replica of the fortified home where they ultimately seized Maduro. The attack was ready four days earlier but delayed for weather, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the sudden it opened up, and we said go,\u201d Trump recounted.<\/p>\n
US forces \u201cturned off almost all of the lights in Caracas\u201d and eventually stormed the home, he said, which included a hardened area encased in steel that Trump called a \u201csafety space.\u201d The US president said that Maduro tried to make it into that space but didn\u2019t reach it in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis thing was so organized. And they go into a dark space with machine guns facing them all over the place,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Trump said the US was prepared for a \u201csecond wave\u201d of strikes on targets but ultimately decided against it. \u201cWe were prepared to do a second wave, we were all set,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was so lethal, this was so powerful that we didn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump declined to identify the US military unit behind the operation provided the soldiers and said there were no fatalities, although some personnel were \u201chit\u201d and one helicopter damaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have things that nobody even knows about, nobody even has a clue about. And we don\u2019t want to talk about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Oil Infrastructure<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s oil infrastructure wasn\u2019t affected after the US airstrikes, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Jose port, Amuay refinery and oil areas in the Orinoco Belt are operational, said the people, who asked not to be identified discuss confidential information.<\/p>\n
While few international companies operate in Venezuela because of US sanctions, Houston-based Chevron Corp. is a major partner to the country\u2019s state oil producer, under a special license from the Treasury Department. In a statement, Chevron said it\u2019s focused on the safety of its Venezuela staff and the integrity of its assets.<\/p>\n
While Venzuela has some of the world\u2019s largest oil reserves, its role as a player in global markets has significantly declined following a precipitous output slump that began in 2015. It currently produces just shy of a million barrels a day \u2014 less than 1% of global output \u2014 most of which goes to China. Oil markets have been grappling with a hefty surplus that\u2019s set to continue early this year, leaving room for the market to cope with any disruption to the country\u2019s output.<\/p>\n
Maduro received a high-level Chinese delegation in Caracas on Friday, including Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Latin American Affairs Qiu Xiaoqi. It is unclear if the diplomats remained in the country by the time of the attack.<\/p>\n
The American operation came on the anniversary of the day in 1990 that the Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to US troops after seeking asylum in the Vatican embassy in Panama City. He was flown to Miami where he was tried and sentenced to prison.<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s departure could become a turning point for Venezuela and its people, who have spent years trying to oust him through elections widely disputed and marred by allegations of fraud and repression.<\/p>\n
Opposition in Focus<\/p>\n
Attention now turns to opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, who is in an unknown location, and to her stand-in candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, widely seen as the winner based on a parallel vote count and currently exiled in Spain.<\/p>\n
After her delayed appearance in Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in mid-December, Machado said she would return to hiding in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
The US president said his administration was deciding the next steps on Venezuela and said he expected any Maduro loyalists still in the country to shift their allegiances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they stay loyal, the future\u2019s really bad, really bad for them,\u201d Trump said on Fox News.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would back Machado to run the country, Trump added, \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s presidency was marked by a prolonged political, social, and economic crisis. His government faced widespread accusations of authoritarianism, human-rights abuses, and suppression of dissent. During his tenure, Venezuela suffered hyperinflation, severe shortages of food and medicine, and the exodus of more than 8 million Venezuelans, one of the largest migration waves in the world.<\/p>\n
Seizing Maduro after a series of airstrikes also stands in contrast to Trump\u2019s repeated promise to end wars and not to start any new ones. The first 11 months of his term have seen the US carry out attacks against Iran, the Houthis in Yemen, and suspected Islamic State targets in Nigeria and Syria.<\/p>\n
Trump had warned against such attacks, telling an audience in Saudi Arabia that \u201cinterventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it\u2019s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Alex Longley and Josh Wingrove.<\/p>\n
(Updates to add details on operation in paragraphs 22-28)<\/p>\n
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