- Associated Press - Saturday, January 3, 2026

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Trump said in an interview Saturday morning that the United States will be making decisions on what is next for Venezuela after capturing the Latin American country’s president and flying him out of the country.

“We’ll be involved in it very much” as to who will govern the country, Trump said.

“We can’t take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News hours after the capture.



Meanwhile, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Nicolás Maduro and his wife were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation when they were captured.

“That’s where they bombed,” he said. “And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”

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