Trump reveals future of Venezuela after issuing chilling ‘second wave’ warning | World | News
The US will “run” Venezuela for the time being, Donald Trump said hours after the country’s president Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured by US forces. During a press conference held from his residence in Florida on January 3, the US President said: “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
“So, we don’t want to be involved with, having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” Mr Trump didn’t provide a timeline indicating when the transition may end.
Venezuela, the US President added, will be “rich, independent and safe” through this “partnership” with the States, Mr Trump also said.
US oil companies will head to Venezuela to operate in the country’s oil reserves, Mr Trump added. He 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.”
During the press conference, which saw also the US Secretary of War Peter Hegseth and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in attendance, Mr Trump warned allies of Venezuelan President Maduro the US military is ready to carry out a second, “much bigger” wave of strikes on the Latin American country, should it be deemed necessary.
He claimed the US Armed Forces had initially assumed a second strike would be needed, but the first attack was “so successful, we probably don’t have to do a second”. Yet, he warned: “But we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually”.
Celebrating the capture of Venezuelan socialist leader Mr Maduro and his wife, Mr Trump also said: “The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone and Venezuelan people are free.
“They’re free again. It’s been a long time for them, but they’re free. America’s a safer nation this morning… and the Western Hemisphere is right now a much safer place to be.”
Mr Trump’s remarks comes after Caracas was rocked overnight by explosions, the results of US strikes.
The US President said Mr Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores now face trial in the US. Mr Trump released on Truth Social the picture of a man on a US warship appearing to be the Venezuelan leader, blindfolded and seemingly handcuffed.
Earlier today, US Attorney General Pam Bondy said Mr Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York, with the Venezuelan leader facing charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.
In the weeks that preceded this unprecedented attack on Venezuela, Mr Maduro and the Caracas government had vehemendly denied allegations made by Washington.
