First Maduro, then Venezuela: After the sudden arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, which involved several branches of the US military, President Donald Trump announced that Washington would temporarily take charge of the South American country.
“We’re going to run the country until we can have a safe, proper and wise transition of power,” President Trump said Saturday at a news conference from his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
“We cannot afford to miss the chance to take over Venezuela by someone who does not have the interests of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
Trump added that the United States would run Venezuela “as a group,” with “different people in charge,” referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kaine behind him.
However, President Trump did not provide further details despite repeated questions from reporters.
At one point, he claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had “just been sworn in” as Mr. Maduro’s successor, saying she was “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, the Venezuelan government has not announced Rodriguez’s appointment.
President Trump’s announcement marks a major escalation in U.S. intervention after months of speculation about whether the U.S. would actually invade the country and what the U.S. government’s transition plans would be. “We’re not afraid to put our boots on the ground,” President Trump said.
“We’re going to get a very large American oil company, the largest in the world, to come in and spend billions of dollars to fix our badly broken infrastructure, our oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he added.
“And we are ready to launch a second, even larger attack if necessary.”
At the same press conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the idea that any operation in Venezuela would require Congressional approval.
Instead, Rubio explained that this is a law enforcement operation supported by the U.S. military and does not require cooperation from Congress.
Rubio said the attack was “not a reportable mission to Congress.”
“Nicolas Maduro was indicted in the United States in 2020. He is not the legitimate president of Venezuela,” Rubio continued.
“He’s a fugitive from U.S. law enforcement and the reward is $50 million. I think we’ve got $50 million saved up right now,” he added.
President Trump suggested the government did not report the attack plan to Congress because it could have been leaked.
Opposition groups in Washington were quick to criticize Trump’s move in Venezuela without pardoning Maduro.
“If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and detain foreign leaders it accuses of criminal wrongdoing, what prevents China from asserting similar authority against the leader of Taiwan? What prevents President Vladimir Putin from asserting similar legitimacy for abducting the president of Ukraine,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
“Once this line is crossed, the rules governing global chaos will begin to break down, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to take advantage,” he added.
“The hypocrisy underlying this decision is particularly clear,” Warner continued, comparing the Venezuela operation to President Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court on serious drug trafficking charges.
“But now the administration is claiming that similar allegations justify the use of military force against other sovereign states. It cannot credibly claim that it calls for invasion in the case of suspected drug trafficking and grants amnesty in others.”
Support for Trump came from Republicans in Congress. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a short statement praising Trump for his “successful mission” to arrest Maduro and bring him to justice in the United States.
“These arrests are the culmination of months of efforts by the Trump administration to discredit the narco-terrorist organization that President Maduro oversaw,” Wicker added.
“The Venezuelan people must now act quickly to put their country back on the path to peace and prosperity, which is in the interest of all of our neighbors,” Wicker said.
Daniel DePetris, a fellow at the think tank Defense Priorities, said in an emailed statement that the operation in Venezuela could usher in a period of major change for the country. “Whether that change will be positive or negative in the long term remains to be seen,” he added.
“The fragmentation of Venezuela’s military, the expansion of domestic criminal organizations, civil war, and the rise of a more sinister dictator are all possible scenarios. None of these bode well for regional stability or U.S. interests in the sphere of influence,” DePetris said.
The Trump administration’s rationale for pressuring Maduro has changed repeatedly in recent months.
Justifications range from combating drug trafficking and recovering oil resources that Venezuela allegedly stole from the United States to overthrowing dictatorships in the name of democracy.
In both cases, Venezuela is presented as a direct threat to U.S. security in the Western Hemisphere.
“But this gives too much credit to the Maduro regime. In fact, Venezuela is a bankrupt state whose economy has declined sharply over the past decade,” De Petriz said.
