President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a safe transition of power can take place and the U.S. will have a “partnership” with Venezuela’s oil industry.
Watch Trump’s remarks in the video player above.
“We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that’s what we’re all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela,” he said on Saturday.
WATCH: Trump holds news conference after announcing U.S. has captured Venezuelan leader Maduro
Trump addressed the nation after the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in a military operation early in the day that plucked a sitting leader from office.
The capture was the culmination of months of escalating pressure from the Trump administration on the oil-rich South American nation.
Accompanying Trump at the briefing were Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Stephen Miller, a top White House aide overseeing homeland security matters.
The U.S. is now evaluating next steps for Venezuela, Trump said.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, taken overnight from their home on a military base, were aboard a U.S. warship on their way to New York, where they were to face criminal charges.
The Justice Department released a new indictment on Saturday of Maduro and his wife, accusing them of a role in narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The legal authority for the attack, which echoed the 1990 US invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, was not immediately clear.
The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro, who last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.
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