President Donald Trump of the United States has said the US will take charge of Venezuela until a proper transition can take place.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington on Saturday, Trump said the US military removed the Venezuelan leader from power and evacuated him and his wife from Caracas.
“We’re there now, we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we’re going to stay until such time a proper transition can take place.”
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and end up with the same situation we’ve had for a long period of years.
“Any transition has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about… No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday or frankly, in such a short period of time.
“We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors,” he said. “We want to surround ourselves with stability,” he said.
Trump said a group of people would step in to run Venezuela, including Secretary of State Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and added U.S. oil companies would have military back up as they move into the region.
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said. “And we have to have, we had boots on the ground last night at a very high level. Actually, we’re not afraid of it, we’re we don’t mind saying it, but we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly. We’re not doing this in vain.”
According to Trump, Maduro and his wife were captured inside Fort Tiuna, a heavily guarded military installation in Caracas.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández confirmed to the Associated Press that the couple were inside the facility when “bombs struck.”
“That’s where they bombed,” Fernández said. “And there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”
