Donald Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela and ‘fix oil infrastructure’

US President Donald Trump said that the US will “manage” Venezuela until a “safe, appropriate and reasonable transition” is provided after US attacks resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump said US oil companies would fix Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country.”

The USA launched an attack on Venezuela on Saturday, allowing Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, to be captured and removed from the country by US forces.

Venezuela declared a national emergency and condemned “military aggression”; The country’s vice president said Maduro is the country’s sole leader.

Maduro and Flores were taken out of the capital Caracas by a US helicopter early Saturday morning and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima to an unknown location in the Caribbean Sea.

They were then taken to the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, then transferred to another plane for New York State, and then taken by helicopter to New York City’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi said Maduro and Flores were charged in the Southern District of New York.

The two are charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice in American courts on American soil,” Bondi wrote to X.

Maduro has previously vehemently denied being a cartel leader and accused the United States of using the “war on drugs” as an excuse to oust him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Speaking at a press conference before Maduro’s arrival in New York, Trump said: “The oil business in Venezuela has been a complete flop for a long time.”

“We’re going to have our largest U.S. oil companies anywhere in the world come in, spend billions of dollars, fix badly broken infrastructure, oil infrastructure, and start bringing money into the country.”

The South American country has about 303 billion barrels of crude oil, accounting for about 20% of the world’s oil resources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

It’s not clear exactly how the US plans to “govern” Venezuela, but the president has said a “group” of people will lead that charge.

“We’re going to run this with a group and make sure it’s run properly,” Trump said.

When journalists pressed him about who would be included in this group in Venezuela, Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez.

Trump said Rodríguez had expressed a willingness to do “whatever the United States wants.”

However, speaking on state television after Trump’s statements, Rodríguez called Maduro “the only president in Venezuela” and added that the government was ready to defend itself.

Earlier, Rodríguez became the first Venezuelan official to speak out in the wake of the US attacks and call on the US to provide proof of life for Maduro and his wife.

Earlier on Saturday, the US launched a “massive attack” on Venezuela; where Maduro and his wife were captured by US forces and flown out of the country before being transferred aboard the USS Iwo Jima.

Venezuela’s long-term allies strongly condemned the US actions. Russia accused the United States of committing an “act of armed aggression” that was “deeply alarming and reprehensible.” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “regarded with deep shock and strongly condemned” the use of force against a sovereign country and its president.

Many Latin American countries, including Venezuela’s neighbors Colombia and Brazil, also condemned the actions. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called them a “criminal attack,” while Trump’s ally in Argentina, Javier Milei, wrote on social media, “Freedom is moving forward.”

US allies, on the other hand, were more reserved in their reactions and called for a peaceful transfer of power. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Britain “views Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears over the end of his regime.”

“The UK government will discuss the developing situation with our US counterparts in the coming days as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” he added.

EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas and French President Emmanuel Macron also called for peace with similar sentiments. A new government must “respect the will of the Venezuelan people,” Macron wrote in a post on X.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the legality of the US operation was “complex” and that international law in general should be applied.

He warned that “political instability must not be allowed to arise in Venezuela.”

Since September, the United States has launched more than 30 attacks against boats used for drug smuggling in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing more than 100 people.

The Trump administration has described attacks on ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific as attacks on terrorists trying to bring fentanyl and cocaine into the United States, but officials have provided no evidence to support their claims.

Except for the two survivors (a Colombian and an Ecuadorian citizen), the identities of none of those on board have been publicly disclosed.

Earlier this week, the conflict escalated further when the United States launched an attack on a “dock area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug ships.

Fentanyl is produced primarily in Mexico and reaches the United States almost exclusively by land via the southern border.

Counternarcotics experts also said Venezuela is a relatively small player in global drug trafficking.

It essentially acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.