Washington, Jan 3 (EFE).- President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a dramatic US military operation and are now aboard the USS Iwo Jima, heading toward New York.
“Yes, the Iwo Jima, they are on a ship,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News. “They will be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out, and they went by helicopter in a nice flight. I am sure they loved it. But they have killed a lot of people, remember that.”
Trump said he had personally spoken to Maduro about a week ago and had offered him only one option. “Basically I said, you have to give up. You have to surrender,” he said, adding that the capture was meant to send a powerful message. “This was a very important symbol.”
The president said the operation, carried out at what he described as a heavily fortified location, resulted in no American fatalities, although some US personnel were injured.
“I think we had nobody killed… a couple of guys were hit, but they came back and they are supposed to be in pretty good shape,” Trump said.
He added that a helicopter was struck during the mission but that no aircraft were lost. “Everything came back.”
Trump described watching the operation unfold in real time from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, alongside senior military officials, likening it to a live broadcast. “I watched it literally, like I was watching a television show.”
He praised the speed and force of the assault, saying US forces broke through reinforced steel doors and extracted Maduro “in a matter of seconds.”
“I was told by real military people that there is no other country on Earth that can do such a maneuver,” Trump said, adding that the mission involved a “massive number” of aircraft, including helicopters and fighter jets.
Looking ahead, Trump said his administration was now weighing its next steps for Venezuela, signaling continued US involvement.
“We cannot take a chance of letting somebody else run it and just take over what he left off,” he said.
Trump claimed Venezuelans were “very happy” with Maduro’s capture, calling his rule a dictatorship.
He also said Maduro had attempted last-minute negotiations. “He was trying to negotiate at the end,” Trump said. “But I said, ‘No, we can’t do it.’ What he did with drugs is bad.”
According to US media, the operation was carried out by a unit of the Delta Force elite force, whose soldiers took Maduro and Flores out of bed and rounded them into a helicopter.
President Trump said earlier that the US carried out a “large-scale attack” to capture Maduro and his first leader who were “flown out of the country.”
“This operation was done in conjunction with US law enforcement.”
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and Flores will face the “full wrath of American justice.”
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote on X.
She said the Venezuela president and the wife were indicted in the Southern District of New York in 2020.
“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 wrote. EFE
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