Yahoo News reported that U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Saturday, Jan. 3, that the U.S. military successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a nighttime operation. Trump described the operation as “a raid the likes of which people have never seen since World War II.”
Trump said the U.S. would “temporarily take control” of the situation in Venezuela and emphasized that, if necessary, the U.S. is prepared to launch a second, much larger military operation.
“If necessary, we are ready for a second operation, and it will be much bigger,” Trump said. “We may not need a second one, but we are prepared — and that would be an even larger wave of action.”
Earlier, Trump posted a photo on social media claiming it showed Maduro being escorted onto the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship, the USS Iwo Jima.
Maduro couple sent to New York
Trump also confirmed that Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, had been taken into U.S. custody. The couple is currently on a U.S. naval vessel being transported to New York, where they are expected to face criminal charges.
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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that a federal court in New York has unsealed an indictment accusing Maduro and Flores of conspiring with a transnational drug trafficking organization to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
In fact, the U.S. had already indicted Maduro and several senior Venezuelan officials in 2020 on “drug-terrorism” charges, though Maduro himself has consistently denied all related allegations.
Opposition leader issues ‘Declaration of Freedom,’ calls for full democratic transition
Following the capture of the Maduro couple, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado issued a nationwide open letter declaring that “the moment of freedom has arrived.”
CBS News noted that Machado had spent most of the past year in hiding and secretly traveled to Norway last month. In her letter, she stated that Maduro will face international justice for the “atrocities committed against the Venezuelan people and citizens of other countries.”
“Because Nicolás Maduro refused to accept any negotiated solution, the U.S. government fulfilled its commitment and enforced the law,” Machado wrote.
She called for the restoration of national order, the release of political prisoners, and the rebuilding of the country, urging the Venezuelan people to support a democratic transition. Machado emphasized that the opposition’s legally elected president, Edmundo González Urrutia, should assume office immediately and be recognized by the military as commander-in-chief.
Machado wrote: “This is the citizens’ moment. We have sacrificed everything for democracy, and it was all worth it. What is happening now is exactly what was meant to happen.”
