Just hours after the US military bombed the South American nation and “captured” President Nicolas Maduro, US President Donald Trump said the US would “run” the country until a political transition occurs.
President Trump said at a press conference on Saturday that the United States “will run the country until such time as we can have a safe, appropriate and wise transition of power.”
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“We don’t want to get involved with other people coming in and it’s been the same as it has been for years,” he said.
The Trump administration launched an attack on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday morning after a months-long pressure campaign against Maduro’s government.
The operation included the seizure of a U.S. oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and a deadly attack on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean that was widely condemned as an extrajudicial killing.
The US government had accused Venezuela’s leader, who has been in power since 2013, of ties to drug cartels. President Maduro has rejected the claims, saying the United States is seeking to oust him and seize control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
At a press conference on Saturday, President Trump said “a very large American oil company” was coming to Venezuela to “fix our badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country.”
He added that the regime’s actions “will make the Venezuelan people rich, independent and secure.”
The Trump administration defended Maduro’s “capture”, saying the leftist leader was facing drug-related charges in the United States.
President Trump previously said the Venezuelan president, who was detained in the United States along with his wife, Cilia Flores, would be extradited to New York to face those charges.
“Illegal kidnapping”
But legal experts, world leaders and U.S. Democratic lawmakers have condemned the administration’s actions as a violation of international law.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote in X that “attacking countries in flagrant violation of international law is the first step towards a world of violence, chaos and instability, where the weakest rather than multilateralism prevail.”
Ben Sole, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, condemned Washington’s “unlawful abduction” of Maduro. “I condemn the United States’ illegal invasion of Venezuela,” Saul wrote on social media.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said US actions in Venezuela were setting a “dangerous precedent” and said he was “deeply alarmed” by the situation.
“The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of everyone fully respecting international law, including the Charter of the United Nations. He is deeply concerned that the rules of international law are not being respected,” Guterres’ office said in a statement.
Earlier Saturday, Venezuela’s defense minister issued a statement in defiance of the US attack and called on the people to remain united.
“We will not negotiate. We will not give up,” Vladimir Padrino López said in a statement, stressing that Venezuela’s independence is not up for negotiation. “We must remain calm and [be] Please come together to overcome this tragic moment. ”
Uncertainty is prevalent
It remains unclear how exactly the United States intends to “manage” Venezuela, and how long the supposed transition period will last.
At a press conference on Saturday, President Trump said that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
“She just took office as president,” Trump told reporters. “She had a long conversation with him. [Rubio]I asked her, and she said, “I’ll do whatever it takes.” I think she was being very kind, but she really didn’t have a choice. ”
There was no immediate comment from Venezuelan authorities on Trump’s claims.
Harlan Ullman, a former U.S. naval officer, told Al Jazeera, “The idea that the United States would take over Venezuela would explode in our faces.”
“When Trump says, ‘We’re going to run the country,’ we don’t have the ability to run America, so how can we run Venezuela?” Ullman said.
“I don’t think there is a plan to deal with Venezuela,” he added. “The country is very complex. We lack the knowledge, understanding and all the logistics to do this.”
