WASHINGTON –
The U.S. struck Venezuela overnight and captured its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump said early Saturday after months of pressuring him over accusations of drug-running and illegitimacy in power.
Washington has not made such a direct intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose military leader Manuel Noriega, over similar allegations.
“The 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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump later told the New York Times that “a lot of good planning” went into the strikes.
“It was a brilliant operation, actually,” Trump said.
The U.S. had accused Maduro of running a “narco-state” and rigging last year’s election, which the opposition said it won overwhelmingly. The Venezuelan leader, who succeeded Hugo Chavez to take power in 2013, has said Washington wants to take control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Trump said the operation was carried out “in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement” and promised more details at an 11 a.m. news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Maduro was captured by elite special forces troops, a U.S. official said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Maduro will “finally face justice for his crimes.”
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