President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were heading to New York on Saturday to face prosecution.
In a live phone interview with “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump said the couple were placed aboard the U.S. assault ship Iwo Jima for the trip.
The U.S. carried out major strikes in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and captured Mr. Maduro. The removal of the country’s president represents the most significant U.S. intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama and the capture of its leader, Manuel Noriega, in January 1990.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media that the two have been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the U.S, she said.
SEE ALSO: U.S. captures Maduro after ‘large-scale’ military strikes in Venezuela, Trump says
Mr. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the same district.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Ms. Bondi said.
The U.S. is now deciding Venezuela’s next steps, Mr. Trump said in the Fox News interview.
As the U.S. can’t leave it up to chance for who takes over next, the U.S. will be heavily involved, he said.
When asked if he would throw his support behind opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the U.S. president said, “Well, we’re going to have to look at it.”
After Ms. Machado was voted to be the opposition figure in the 2024 presidential election, the Venezuelan government, controlled by Mr. Maduro, barred her from running. Mr. Trump called the election of Mr. Maduro a disgrace.
SEE ALSO: FLASHBACK: Trump versus Maduro: Why the White House is fixated on Venezuela
For Mr. Trump, removing Mr. Maduro is part of a longstanding effort to install new leadership in Caracas.
For months, the U.S. has waged a war on drugs against the Venezuelan government. This has involved dozens of strikes on boats allegedly moving narcotics to the U.S. and seizing at least one tanker purportedly moving illicit oil from Venezuela.
More recently, the U.S. military conducted its first strike on Venezuelan land, hitting a dock that the U.S. alleged was involved in drug trafficking.
When asked what he would say to the people who wake up concerned about prolonged military involvement in Venezuela, Mr. Trump said, “We’re saving lives.”
He claimed that drugs coming into the U.S. have virtually stopped and that this operation sends a signal that the U.S. will not be pushed around anymore.
“We had to do it because it’s a war,” he said. “We’re losing 300,000 people a year. We don’t lose that much in a war,” referencing the number of people who have died from drugs.
Government statistics show the number of drug overdose deaths per year is closer to the 100,000 to 110,000 range.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. military waited four days for the operation, and “all of a sudden it opened up, and we said go,” referencing the weather.
Mr. Maduro was in a highly guarded “fortress” with steel doors, of which U.S. soldiers — including the Army’s Delta Force — had made a copy, Mr. Trump said.
The U.S. president said the troops entered the house “in a matter of seconds” before Mr. Maduro was “bum-rushed,” adding that “we were prepared.”
Applauding the operation, Mr. Trump said no one was killed and no aircraft was left. He noted that the U.S. was prepared to complete a second wave of attacks, but the first was so lethal that it wasn’t necessary.
Vice President J.D. Vance said on social media that the president had offered several off-ramps to the Venezuelan president. Mr. Trump said, “You have to give up, you have to surrender,” but in the end, he said the U.S. had to do something “much more surgical, much more powerful.”
As for what is to become of Mr. Maduro’s loyalists, Mr. Trump said, “If they stay loyal, their future is bleak,” adding that the Venezuelan president was a dictator the people hated.
The U.S. president said Venezuelans are happy with the U.S. operation and are waving American flags in the street. “The people have no love for him,” he said of Mr. Maduro.
When it comes to the future of Venezuela’s oil industry, the U.S. will be “very much involved,” he said.
He concluded, “Our country is hotter than it’s ever been before.”
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company that operates in Venezuela, says it’s focused on the safety and well-being of its employees.
“We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” a company spokesperson said.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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