Running Venezuela Without The Details
Oil and regime change allegations continue to be undenied
Based on Saturday’s much-anticipated press conference at Mar-a-Lago, the US administration appears to have no “day after” plan for running Venezuela after its stunning military operation just hours earlier. No plan for an actual transition, but definitely a plan to engage in oil profiteering.
Trump announced the US plans to temporarily take control of Venezuela and sell its oil reserves to other countries. The president said, “We’re going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” adding that “We’re there now, and what people don’t understand, but they understand as I say this, we’re there now. But we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.” Trump added the US is prepared for a second attack, saying, “We probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually.”
Praising his “Donroe Doctrine,” Trump said of his foreign policy vision, “The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot.” On selling Venezuelan oil, Trump said, “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.” Claiming he’s not afraid of US “boots on the ground,” Trump said of who’s going to run Venezuela, “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.”
As Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said that she and the opposition are ready to run the country, Trump threw her under the bus, first by saying the administration has not talked with her since the operation, before adding, “She does not have the support in Venezuela. She is a very nice woman, but she does not have the support.”
Pete Hegseth, true to form, said in his remarks about the Maduro operation, “He f’ed around, and he found out. Welcome to 2026.” Meanwhile, Cuba is also in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. Trump said, “Cuba, as you know, is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years, and I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now.”
One person notably absent from the press conference is Vice President JD Vance, who only praised the “truly impressive operation” on social media.
After a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lee posted on Twitter that Maduro will “stand trial on criminal charges in the United States,” adding that “He anticipates no further action in Venezuela” since Maduro is in US custody. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife were charged in a New York district court, being indicted on drug and weapons charges as he faces the “full wrath of American justice.”
In a Saturday morning interview with Fox News, Trump said Maduro and his wife had a “good flight” and were aboard the USS Iwo Jima, before confirming the couple will be sent to New York to face justice. It comes as Trump released a photo of a blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro wearing a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, while holding a bottle of water in his right hand. During the Fox News call, Trump confirmed that two American soldiers and a helicopter were hit during the Saturday morning raid.
Offering details of the US operation to capture Maduro, also known as “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the president and senior officials watched in real time from Mar-a-Lago the Delta Force raid that captured the Venezuelan leader. With assistance from a CIA source within the Venezuelan government, the Army’s Delta Force broke through the doors of a safe house “in a matter of seconds” after repeated practice on similar models.
In the US, the Venezuelan community celebrated Maduro’s ouster after years of oppression. Democrats raised alarms over Trump’s avoidance of congressional authority before launching the attacks, and even though some Republicans also expressed concerns, most of them celebrated Maduro’s arrest.
By Saturday afternoon, a US military aircraft carrying Maduro and his wife landed at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York. The couple was set to be processed and transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center prison, and is set to appear in court by Monday evening. New York’s newly inaugurated mayor, Zohran Mamdani, personally called Trump and opposed “a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal and international law.”
Despite earlier reports that Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was in Russia, she delivered a televised address saying Maduro is their country’s only president, vowing the nation “will never return to being the colony of another empire.”
In Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said of the US operation, “If it’s possible to deal with dictators like that, just like that, then the United States knows what to do next.”
All of this only adds to more chaos and uncertainty regarding the future of Venezuela. In a simulation conducted by the first Trump administration, a US war game forecasts turmoil and a chance of potential violence in a post-Maduro Venezuela. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.