Trump says Maduro, wife being transported to New York
US President Donald Trump has claimed that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been captured by US forces and are being taken to New York.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump said Maduro and Flores had been indicted in New York and were being transported to the state by helicopter and ship. He alleged that the Venezuelan leader was responsible for the deaths of many people, including American citizens.
Trump said the operation to capture Maduro had been planned earlier but was delayed due to weather conditions. “The weather has to be perfect,” he said, adding that the mission was launched once conditions improved.
Describing the raid, Trump said Maduro was captured from a location “more like a fortress than a house,” with heavy steel fortifications. He claimed no US soldiers were killed during the operation, though a few were injured and are now in stable condition.
The US president said he had spoken with Maduro about a week before the operation, urging him to surrender. When that did not happen, Trump said the US carried out what he described as a “surgical and powerful” action.
Trump also said the United States would now be “strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil sector, adding that Maduro’s capture sent a message that Washington would no longer allow itself to be “pushed around,” particularly over drug trafficking.
Asked about Venezuela’s political future, Trump said Washington would review its position regarding opposition leader María Corina Machado and questioned the legitimacy of Maduro’s election.
The US vice president later said in a post on X that the operation demonstrated Trump’s resolve, praising US special forces and reiterating claims of drug trafficking and oil theft.
Earlier, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York. According to Bondi, Maduro faces charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons against the United States.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said, though she did not specify the charges against Flores.
Bondi also thanked the US military for what she described as a “highly successful mission” to capture the two “alleged international narco traffickers.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said the United States had carried out “large-scale strikes” against Venezuela and that Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the operation was conducted in coordination with US law enforcement agencies and that further details would be announced at a news conference later in the day at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Source: CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC