The US president announced that his Venezuelan counterpart is on board the USS Iwo Jima, on its way to New York
United States President Donald Trump stated that he followed the complex capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in real time from a room in Mar-a-Lago, alongside military generals.
“I was told by career military personnel that there is no other country on Earth capable of carrying out a maneuver like this,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox News. “If I had seen what happened… I mean, I literally saw it, like I was watching a TV show.”
“If you had seen the speed, the violence – they use that term, speed and violence -… it was just an incredible, extraordinary job done by these people. There’s no one else who could have done something like that,” Trump added.
The American president, who spent Christmas and New Year in Palm Beach, at his private Mar-a-Lago club, said he saw the US armed forces capture Maduro, in an operation that included breaking into steel doors.
“We watched from a room. We had a room and we saw everything, every aspect of the operation. We were surrounded by many people, including generals, and they knew exactly what was happening. It was very complex, extremely complex.”
“Basically, they entered by force and invaded places that, theoretically, could not be invaded – they broke down steel doors that had been placed there for precisely that reason – and took them out in a matter of seconds. I have never seen anything like that,” he continued.
“Some injured. None dead”
Trump said the United States had a “massive number” of aircraft at its disposal, including helicopters and fighter jets. The President of the United States also believes that no Americans died during the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, although some were injured while trying to detain him in a location that Trump described as heavily fortified.
“I don’t think we had anyone killed, I have to say that, because some men were hit. But they came back and, by all accounts, they are in very good condition,” he told Fox News.
The president added that a helicopter was hit during the operation, but that no aircraft were lost.
“We didn’t lose any aircraft. Everything came back. One of them was hit pretty hard, a helicopter, but we managed to bring it back,” Trump said.
The next steps, according to Trump
The president of the United States anticipated what his administration is considering as the next steps in terms of governing Venezuela, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
“Well, we’re making that decision now. We can’t take the risk of letting someone else govern and just continue what he left. So we’re making that decision right now. We’re going to be very involved. And we want freedom for the people,” Trump told Fox News in a telephone interview.
Trump stated that Venezuelans are very pleased with Maduro’s capture “because they like the United States” and because the country, under Maduro, was “a dictatorship.”
According to Trump, Maduro was trying to negotiate. “You know? He was trying to negotiate at the end,” he said. “But I said, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ What he did with drugs is bad.”
Reasons a height of the USS I
Donald Trump also stated that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife are on board the USS Iwo Jima, on their way to New York.
“Yes, Iwo Jima. They are on a ship,” Trump clarified. “They’re going to New York. The helicopters took them out of there and they went on a nice helicopter ride. I’m sure they loved it. But they killed a lot of people, don’t forget that.”
Asked about the alternatives he had offered Maduro, Trump responded: “Well, basically I said: you have to give up. You have to surrender.”
Trump also told Fox that he spoke to Maduro a week ago: “This was a very important symbol, and we, I had conversations. I spoke to him personally, but I told him: you have to give up. You have to surrender.”
