Mar-A-Lago – President Donald Trump has said that his administration will temporarily run Venezuela now that Dictator Nicholas Maduro has been arrested.
President Trump remarked during a press conference held in Palm Beach, Florida, that the U.S. will run Venezuela “until such time as it can be put back on track.”
“….We’re going to be running it with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly. We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars," said President Trump. "It’ll be paid for by the oil companies directly. They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing. But it’s going to be paid. And we’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be."
The press conference comes after President Trump announced the military operation that resulted in the capture of the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, alongside his wife.
The capture of Maduro has been a part of a months-long pressure campaign by U.S. forces along the Caribbean to combat ‘narco-terrorism’ tied to Maduro’s regime.
What group will run Venezuela?
President Trump affirmed that members of the group running Venezuela would consist of cabinet members such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“….it’s largely going to be for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We’re going to be running it. We’re going to be bringing it back. It’s a….dead country. A year and a half ago, we were a DEAD country. Now, we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’re a country doing better than any country anywhere in the world. And, it required leadership. And Venezuela has a lot of bad people in there. A lot of bad people that shouldn’t be leading. We’re not going to take a chance at one of those people [to] take over for Maduro.” President Trump replied when asked about the group that would run the country.
What mechanism will the U.S. use?
Additionally, a reporter asked Trump if the U.S.’s involvement in running Venezuela meant having boots on the ground. The President responded by stating that he administration was "not afraid of boots on the ground."
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have…. We had boots on the ground last night, at a very high level, actually. We’re not afraid of it. We don’t mind saying it. But we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly. We’re not doing this in vain. This is a very dangerous attack. This is an attack that could’ve gone very, very badly…. [We] could’ve lost a lot of people last night. We could’ve lost a lot of dignity, we could’ve lost a lot of equipment…. And we’re going to make sure that this is proper." Trump assured.
"We’re there now, we’re ready to go again if we have to. We’re going to run the country right. It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. It’s going to make a lot of money. We’re going to give money to the people. We’re going to reimburse people that were taken advantage of. We’re going to take care of everybody,” the President added.
“We couldn’t let them get away with it. You know they stole our oil. We built that whole industry there. And they just took it over like we were nothing. And we had a president that decided not to do anything about it. So, we did something about it. We’re late, but we did something about it.” President Trump said reminding those in attendance of the actions of Venezuela in the past, while taking a jab at the previous president, Joe Biden.
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