President Donald Trump said the U.S. is going to temporarily take over governing Venezuela after launching a large-scale surprise attack on the country overnight. “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said in a press conference Saturday morning from his Mara-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Venezuela operation “was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of the American military. Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost, many helicopters, many planes, many people involved in that fight,” Trump also said. U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The couple have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug-trafficking charges. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said the mission involved “more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in political coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas, while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.” Trump said the U.S. would be in charge of Venezuela until there is a safe transition of leadership.
He also said the U.S. would be running the country “with a group” and “designating various people,” without providing details. According to Trump, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as president and had been in contact with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said. Meanwhile, the United States Department of Justice has charged President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and other top officials of his government with Narco-Terrorism and massive cocaine trafficking.
The federal prosecutors unsealed the superseding indictment (S4 11 Cr. 205 (AKH)) charging six high-ranking Venezuelans with orchestrating a decades-long conspiracy to flood the US with thousands of tons of cocaine, while partnering with designated foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal groups.
Among those charged by the US Department of Justice include, Maduro, Diosdado Cabello Rondón Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace; Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, former Minister of the Interior and Justice.
Others include, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, First Lady of Venezuela; Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, president’s son and member of Venezuela’s National Assembly; and Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, TdA.
They were accused of “participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy spanning from approximately 1999 to 2025, during which they allegedly partnered with narco-terrorist groups including the FARC (and its successors FARC-EP and Segunda Marquetalia), ELN, Sinaloa Cartel, Zetas/Cartel del Noreste, and Tren de Aragua According to the charge sheet, the accused used Venezuelan government institutions, military, and diplomatic channels to protect, transport, and facilitate the importation of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.
It was further revealed that they also provided safe haven in Venezuela for drug traffickers and terrorists, even as they enriched themselves and their families through corruption, bribery, money laundering, and patronage networks (often referred to as the “Cartel de los Soles”)
