Trump says US will temporarily assume control of Venezuela, target oil sales after Maduro capture

President Donald Trump is insisting the US government would run Venezuela, at least temporarily, and would tap Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to sell “large amounts” to other countries.

The announcements made during a press conference on Saturday came hours after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in an extraordinary military operation that plucked a sitting leader from office.

Trump said the U.S. planned to run Venezuela until a transition of power could take place. He claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs the US was running the country.

Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at the Mar-a-Lago news conference, where he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”

The action marked the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American country that consisted of months of strikes on boats officials said were smuggling drugs to the U.S.

Behind the scenes, U.S. officials tracked Maduro’s behavioural habits, including what he ate and where he slept, in preparing to execute an operation that resulted in one of the more stunning regime changes in modern history.

Maduro and his wife, seized 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 in connection with a Justice Department indictment accusing them of a role in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The legal authority for the attack, which echoed the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, was not immediately clear.

It lasted less than 30 minutes, and the explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they’d seen and heard.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some US forces were injured in Venezuela, but none were killed. (AP)