Removal Of Nicolas Maduro Opens Potential Power Vacuum In Venezuela

WASHINGTON, January 3 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US attacked Venezuela and captured long-serving President Nicolas Maduro in an overnight operation, and vowed to bring the country under American control for now, including deploying US forces if necessary.

“We will govern the country until we can make a safe, appropriate and reasonable transition,” Trump said at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “We cannot risk Venezuela being taken over by someone else who does not have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.”

It is unclear how Trump plans to control Venezuela. Despite a dramatic night operation that knocked out power to part of Caracas and captured Maduro at or near one of his safe houses, US forces have no control over the country and Maduro’s government appears to still be in power.

Trump’s comments about an open-ended presence in Venezuela echoed past leadership changes in Iraq and Afghanistan; both resulted in US withdrawal after years of occupation. He said he was open to the idea of ​​sending U.S. forces to Venezuela.

“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said.

Trump did not provide specific answers to reporters’ repeated questions about how the United States would govern Venezuela.

Trump said a U.S. invasion “won’t cost us a dime” because the U.S. would be paid back from “money coming out of the ground,” referring to Venezuela’s oil reserves, which he repeatedly referenced at Saturday’s news conference.

Trump said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in contact with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s possible successor.

“‘We’ll do whatever you need,'” Trump quoted Rodriguez as saying. “He really has no choice.”

Reuters could not immediately confirm the change.

Four sources familiar with his movements said Rodriguez was in Russia. The Russian foreign ministry called the report on Rodriguez’s presence in their country “fake”.

The removal of Maduro, who heavily ruled Venezuela for more than 12 years, potentially creates a power vacuum in the Latin American country.

Any serious instability in the country of 28 million people threatens to drag Trump into the kind of quagmire that has marked US foreign policy for much of the 21st century, such as interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States has not intervened so directly in its backyard since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago, when military leader Manuel Noriega was deposed over allegations he led a drug-trafficking operation. The US made similar accusations against Maduro, accusing him of running a “drug state” and rigging the 2024 elections. Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver who was handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those allegations and said Washington intends to seize control of his country’s world’s largest oil reserves.

As the sun rose, the streets of Venezuela looked calm. Soldiers patrolled some areas, and some small pro-Maduro crowds began to gather in Caracas.

But others expressed relief.

“I’m happy, for a moment I suspected it was like a movie,” said Carolina Pimentel, a 37-year-old trader in the city of Maracay. “Everything is calm right now, but I feel like everyone is going to come out to celebrate at any moment.”

Venezuelan officials condemned Saturday’s intervention. “In the unity of the people we will find the strength to resist and triumph,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a video message.

While various Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 election, direct U.S. intervention revives painful memories of past interventions and is often fiercely opposed by governments and peoples in the region.

This action by Trump is reminiscent of the Monroe Doctrine, put forward by President James Monroe in 1823, which laid out the United States’ claim to influence in the region, and the “gunboat diplomacy” seen under Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.

Venezuela’s allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the attacks as a violation of sovereignty. Tehran called on the UN Security Council to stop the “illegal attack”.

Among leading Latin American countries, Argentinian President Javier Milei praised Venezuela’s new “freedom,” while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said it crossed an “unacceptable line.”

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Raphael Satter; Editing by William Mallard, William Maclean, Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)