U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that American forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after conducting a “large-scale strike” in Caracas, LETA reported citing AFP.
“The United States successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader — President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured along with his wife and flown out of the country,” Trump stated on his social platform Truth Social.
“This operation was conducted in cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies,” he added.
In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, Trump praised the operation, describing it as outstanding.
“A lot of good planning and a lot of great, great soldiers and wonderful people,” the newspaper quoted Trump as saying.
Trump's statement followed several months of increasing military and economic pressure from the U.S. on the leftist leader Maduro and his country's oil-dependent economy.
In December, the U.S. president stated that it would be “wise” for Maduro to resign, and also said that the Venezuelan leader’s “days” were “numbered.”
The U.S. armed forces intensified actions against vessels that are allegedly used for drug smuggling. On Friday, Venezuela announced its readiness to negotiate with the U.S. on an agreement to combat drug trafficking.
In an interview aired on Thursday, Maduro stated that the U.S., through a months-long pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment in the Caribbean in August, aims to force Venezuela to change its government and gain access to its vast oil reserves.
The U.S. accuses Maduro of drug terrorism.
On Monday, Trump reported that the U.S. destroyed a dock used for loading vessels of Venezuelan drug traffickers. Maduro neither confirmed nor denied the strike carried out on Monday.
For several months, Trump has threatened that he may soon order strikes on targets within Venezuela. The U.S. has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered the blocking of other tankers, seemingly aiming to restrict the South American country's economy.
Since September, the U.S. armed forces have carried out numerous strikes on vessels in both the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, acting against what Washington claims are drug traffickers.
However, the U.S. administration has not provided any evidence that these vessels were involved in drug trafficking, which in turn has sparked discussions about the legality of these operations.
Experts in international law and human rights organizations point out that these strikes appear to be extrajudicial killings. Washington denies this.
According to information released by the U.S. military, at least 115 people have been killed in at least 305 strikes during the deadly maritime campaign.
These attacks followed a significant buildup of U.S. forces in the waters off South America — including the deployment of the most advanced American aircraft carrier in November, which added thousands of troops to an already largest military presence in the region in several generations.
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