President Trump said Saturday that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until a transition takes place following the capture of the country’s President Nicholas Maduro.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said during a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” he added.
When asked to clarify specifically who will run Venezuela, Trump said the U.S. will be running it with a team.
“We’re going to be running it with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly,” Trump said. “We’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of and we’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela who were forced out by this thug are taken care of.”
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez assumed power following Maduro’s capture on Saturday. When asked if the U.S. would work with Rodriguez, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio has had a conversation with Rodriguez.
“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” he said.
Trump said Rodriguez was “gracious” but that she does not have “a choice” in the matter.
The president went on to note that the U.S. would also take control of its oil production.
“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” Trump said. “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
His remarks come hours after the U.S. arrested Maduro and his wife on narco-terrorism charges amid a strike on Venezuela overnight. The capture took place just days after the Venezuelan strongman said he was open to conducting negotiations with the U.S. regarding drug trafficking and oil.
Congressional leaders were reportedly notified only after the operation was complete.
The U.S. attack follows months of tensions, jabs and threats from Trump and U.S. officials toward Maduro, who the U.S. government has accused of heading a drug cartel and was deemed an “illegitimate leader.”
The Trump administration has also accused Maduro of running a “narco-state” and rigging the election in the South American country last year. In previous comments, the Venezuelan leader predicted that Washington wants to take control of his nation’s oil reserves.
