Today, President Donald Trump announced that US troops had taken Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro prisoner after a “large-scale strike” on the South American country.
Trump claimed on Truth Social, “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been captured and flown out of the country along with his wife.”
“This operation was carried out with the help of U.S. law enforcement.”
Trump also said that he would have a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida at 11:00 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Christmas Eve. He is almost done with a two-week vacation for Christmas and New Year’s.
Trump called the operation “brilliant” in a short phone chat with The New York Times.
The tabloid said Trump said, “A lot of good planning and a lot of great, great troops and great people.”
After months of progressively increasing US military and economic pressure on Maduro, the leftist leader of Venezuela, and his country’s economy, Trump’s shocking declaration comes.
The president of the United States remarked in December that “it would be smart for (Maduro)” to step down, and he has previously claimed that the Venezuelan leader’s “days are numbered.”
Two days after Maduro tried to talk to Trump about working together to battle drug trafficking and illegal immigration, Trump said he had captured Maduro.
Trump has made different grounds for his campaign against Venezuela, such as saying that the country is a major drug exporter to the US and that it took US oil interests.
The Republican leader hasn’t directly called for Maduro to step down, but the US government and many European countries don’t think Maduro is a legitimate leader.
The Caribbean now boasts a lot of naval and air power, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships.
As part of an oil blockade on Venezuela, US forces have taken two tankers at sea. They have also murdered more than 100 people in airstrikes on tiny boats they say are smuggling drugs.
On Monday, Trump told reporters that the US had bombed and destroyed a docking location for alleged Venezuelan drug boats. This was the first known strike on Venezuelan soil during the campaign.
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