The United States military carried out air strikes on Venezuela early Saturday morning and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. U.S. President Donald Trump, at a news conference after the strikes, said “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio expanded on that statement Sunday morning. He told NBC News’ Meet the Press that the transition is a group effort.
“This is a team effort by the entire apparatus of the country, but it’s running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that’s who we work for. But also, we believe, to the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela and the people of Venezuela,” Rubio said.
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Rubio said on NBC that “We don’t have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela.”
Trump told the media on Saturday that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was “sworn in” to replace Maduro, but noted she was picked by him.
“Marco [Rubio] is working on that directly,” Trump said. “Just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, Rodríguez heavily criticized Trump and rejected the idea of a regime change in a televised address just hours later, where she said Maduro is the “only president” in Venezuela.
“We are determined to be free,” she said, according to The New York Times. “What is being done to Venezuela is a barbarity.”
Rodríguez went to say: “We had already warned that an aggression was underway under false excuses and false pretenses, and that the masks had fallen off, revealing only one objective: regime change in Venezuela.”
Such an action, she said, “would also allow for the seizure of our energy, mineral and natural resources.”
“This is the true objective, and the world and the international community must know it,” Rodríguez said.
Operation Absolute Resolve
General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the press “Operation Absolute Resolve” was a culmination of months of planning and rehearsal.
“The word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose — to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise,” Caine said.
The chairman said Trump ordered the strike at 10:46 p.m. At that point, aircraft began launching from 20 different bases across the Western Hemisphere. The goal was to ensure safe passage of the helicopters for the ground component into the compound. Once Maduro and his wife were secured, they were helicoptered out. They eventually embarked the USS Iwo Jima.
One of the aircraft was hit, but remained flyable. That aircraft, along with all of the others, made it home.
While Trump said the U.S. is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” he added the first one was successful so it “probably” won’t be necessary.
Trump announced the attacks on social media early Saturday. He reported the operation was done in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement.
Venezuelan authorities have said civilians, members of its military and Maduro’s security team were killed in the strikes, though an official number has not been released. Straight Arrow News reached out to the State and Defense Departments for comment.
Bondi announces indictment
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York on multiple drug-related charges. The indictment was released on X just after 9 a.m. Saturday.
“The will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American court,” Bondi wrote.
The Associated Press reports the attack involved seven blasts and lasted less than 30 minutes.
The attack on Venezuela comes after months of strikes in international waters on what that Trump administration alleges are “narco-terrorists.” As of Friday, the administration reported 35 strikes on boats they say carried drugs and 115 deaths. Lawmakers from both parties have criticized these airstrikes, saying federal officials have not provided sufficient evidence that these were drug boats.
This story is developing and will be updated.
