US President Donald Trump says the United States will take over the affairs of Venezuela until a political transition is achieved.
Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Trump said Washington would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and end up with the same situation we’ve had for a long period of years,” he said, adding that any transition “has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about”.
The announcement came hours after the US said it had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flown him out of the South American country.
Shortly before Maduro’s capture, the US bombed Caracas, cutting the Venezuelan capital off from the national power grid.
Commenting on the attack, Trump described the strike as “an incredible thing to see”, saying no American soldiers were killed and no military equipment was lost during the operation.
Trump also claimed the US had “knocked out 97 per cent of the drugs coming by sea”, alleging that most of the drugs originated from Venezuela.
The US president has repeatedly warned that Washington is preparing further action against what it describes as drug trafficking networks operating in Venezuela.
In October, Trump said he had authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate inside Venezuela to curb the illegal flow of migrants and drugs from the South American country.
