{"id":56732,"date":"2026-01-03T22:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/trump-says-us-will-run-venezuela-after-maduro-s-capture\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:47:21","slug":"trump-says-us-will-run-venezuela-after-maduro-s-capture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/trump-says-us-will-run-venezuela-after-maduro-s-capture\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US will \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela after Maduro\u2019s capture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking at a press conference in Florida on Saturday, Trump said Washington would govern Venezuela until a \u201csafe, proper and judicious transition\u201d to new leadership could be achieved. He said the US wanted to avoid a scenario in which Maduro\u2019s removal resulted in another government that perpetuated the country\u2019s long-running political and economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe can\u2019t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn\u2019t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s remarks came hours after he announced on Truth Social that US forces had carried out strikes on Venezuela and captured Maduro and Flores. In a subsequent phone interview with Fox News, he confirmed that the pair were being transferred to New York, where Maduro has been indicted and could appear in court as early as Monday.<\/p>\n

The operation, which US officials said had been planned for months and executed without congressional authorisation, marks a dramatic escalation in Washington\u2019s campaign against Maduro. <\/p>\n

The US has intensified its military operations in recent months, citing efforts to combat alleged drug smuggling linked to Venezuela, including strikes on speedboats and ports. Over the past few weeks, Trump has made repeated references to military actions in Venezuelan territory, with prior reports indicating strikes in Zulia, an oil-rich state, and the seizure of two sanctioned oil tankers.<\/p>\n

Trump did not spell out what US governance of Venezuela would entail but said American oil companies were ready to invest billions of dollars to repair the country\u2019s dilapidated oil infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country,\u201d he said, adding that Venezuela\u2019s oil wealth would ensure the operation would not cost US taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Trump also warned that further military action was possible, saying the US was prepared to launch a \u201csecond and much larger attack\u201d if necessary, and did not rule out deploying ground troops. \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid of boots on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro would \u201cface the full wrath\u201d of the US justice system. Charges unsealed on Saturday include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offences. Federal prosecutors allege Maduro used state institutions to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking to the United States, claims he has long denied.<\/p>\n

The announcement drew swift criticism from legal experts and foreign leaders, who warned the operation could violate international law and destabilise the region. With Washington yet to clarify how it plans to govern Venezuela or for how long, uncertainty looms over the country\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n

\"Venezuelan<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has said the United States will \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela following a military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, a move that has sparked international controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100142,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-03-jan-2026-10-08-pm-6022.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56732"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56732"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}