On Saturday president Donald Trump said that US force had arrested Venezuelan president
Nicola Maduro and his wife after launching an attack on the South American country.
Trump said truth on social that “ The United States of America has successfully carried out
a large-scale strike against Venezuela and it’s leader, president Nicola Maduro who has
been a long with his wife, captured and flown out of the country”
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi later stated that President Nicolás Maduro and his wife,
Cilia Flores, had been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
She wrote in a post on X,“Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism
Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and
Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive
Devices against the United States”.
She also said, The couple,would soon “face the full wrath of American justice
on American soil in American courts”.
Washington has branded Maduro’s regime a “narco-state,” accusing him of hijacking the
ballot box to steal an election the opposition claims to have won by a landslide. But
Maduro—the hand-picked successor to Hugo Chávez—sees a different motive: he insists
the U.S. is orchestrating a coup to seize the crown jewel of the Caribbean, Venezuela’s
world-leading oil reserves.
US senator said on Saturday, quoting Secretary of State Marco Rubio, The
United States has completed its military action in Venezuela after capturing
leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
“He anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US
custody,” Senator Mike Lee, a Republican initially critical of the operation,
wrote on X after what he said was a telephone call with Rubio.
Earlier, US media outlets, including Fox News and CBS News, reported that
the United States was conducting military strikes on the Caribbean country,
in a dramatic escalation that Venezuelans had feared for weeks.
The blasts, accompanied by the sound of planes flying over the city, were
heard around 2:00am (0600 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist said.
Explosions were also heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, where
Caracas’s airport and port are located.
“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international
community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the
current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan
territory and people,” the government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro
said.
On Saturday morning, CBS reporter Jennifer Jacobs posted on X, Trump
administration officials are aware of reports of explosions and aircraft over
Venezuela’s capital Caracas.
Maduro has accused the Trump administration of pursuing regime change in a bid to
secure control over Venezuela’s vast and strategically vital oil reserves.
“At this moment they are bombing Caracas”, Colombian President
Gustavo Petro posted on X. “Alert everyone — they have attacked
Venezuela. They are bombing with missiles. The (Organisation of
American States) and the UN must meet immediately.”
Trump has announced a “blockade” of Venezuelan oil, expanded sanctions
and staged more than two dozen strikes on vessels the US alleges were
involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
Last week, Trump said the United States had “hit” an area in Venezuela
where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known time Washington
has carried out land operations in Venezuela since the pressure campaign
began.
Trump has accused the South American country of flooding the US with
drugs, and his administration has for months been bombing boats originating
in South America that it alleges were carrying drugs.
Many nations have condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings and
Maduro’s government has always denied any involvement with drug
trafficking.
