US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States would maintain direct control of Venezuela to prevent “somebody else” taking it over after a military operation that captured President Nicolas Maduro, pledging to keep oil flowing to China even as Washington signalled it would manage the transition itself.
Washington later confirmed that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been captured and removed from the country, and released photographs showing Maduro under US custody.
It was not immediately clear how US control of Venezuela would function in practice, how long it would last and what legal authority would underpin it. Trump said “a group of US civilian and military officials” would temporarily oversee the country but gave no timetable for elections.
The attack marked the most direct US military action in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama and triggered immediate international reactions, most notably from China, Venezuela’s largest oil customer.
At a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump questioned whether opposition figures were in a position to govern, singling out Maria Corina Machado, whom he described as “a very nice woman” but who lacked the support and authority to take power and was “not apt” to do so at this stage.
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