On January 3, US President Donald Trump held a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Together with the secretaries of state and defense, he reported on the military attack on Venezuela in which the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken captive. Trump also made clear his intentions regarding Venezuela and how he will administer the country.
The military operation to remove Maduro
In the press conference, Trump explained how a large number of US troops entered Venezuelan territory to carry out the attack and remove Maduro and his wife from the country. He reported that both have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on terrorism charges.
“Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil. Right now, they’re on a ship, and they’ll be heading to New York ultimately. And then a decision will be made, I assume, between New York and Miami.”
Trump stated that no US soldiers were killed, despite what he said was resistance from Venezuelan forces. He also reported that helicopters, planes, and ships were involved, and that none of these were lost during the operation.
For his part, US Air Force General Dan “Raisin” Caine provided a series of technical details about the operation: “The word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission and extraction so precise. It involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose.”
“And there’s simply no match for American military might. As the night began, the helicopters took off with the extraction force, which included law enforcement officers, and began their flight into Venezuela at 100ft above the water … The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, EA 18, E2’s B-1 bombers, and other support aircraft, as well as numerous remotely piloted drones. As the force began to approach Caracas, the Joint Air Component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area,” said Caine.
He added: “On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire and they replied to that fire with overwhelming force in self-defense. One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable … After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prep for departure. Helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the extraction force, while fighter aircraft and remotely-piloted aircraft provided overhead coverage and suppressive fire. There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela. The force successfully exfiltrated and returned to their afloat launch bases, and the force was over the water at 3:29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, with indicted persons on board, and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Iwo Jima.”
Threats of a second attack
Trump clarified that this first attack could be followed by a second if he encounters any resistance to his plans to control the South American country, and that this second wave could be even harsher than the first: “We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so. We were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so. We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not. The first wave, if you’d like to call it that, the first attack was so successful, we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave.”
In addition, Trump warned the Venezuelan government that if they resist the “new order” in the country, their future will be bleak: “All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro, can happen to them, and it will happen to them if they aren’t just fair, even to their people.” The number of Venezuelan victims of the US attack is still unknown. Little by little, the results of the missiles that struck Venezuelan infrastructure have been revealed.
Regarding the reasons for not informing the US Congress about the attack, Trump said: “Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good if they leaked. General. I think it would have been maybe a very different result. But I have to say they knew we were coming at some point. You know, a lot of ships out there, they sort of knew we were coming. We went through. But Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers.”
“We are going to run the country”
Trump also clarified that his intention was not only to take Maduro prisoner, but that now is the time to ensure a transition during which the United States will administer the country. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So, we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that’s what we’re all about … We’re going to stay until such time as we’re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
Trump was vague about the duration of the US occupation, saying it could last for “some time” until all of the United States’ demands are met. “We’re there now. We’re ready to go again if we have to. We’re going to run the country. It’s going to be run very, judiciously, very fairly. It’s going to make a lot of money … It’s largely going to be for a period of time. The people who are standing right behind me, we’re going to be running it … We have fantastic people, including people in the military. So we’re going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for the people, and give people a great way of life, and also reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of Venezuela.”
Trump clarified that María Corina Machado would not be Maduro’s replacement: “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Despite not giving a specific date for the duration of the announced US occupation of Venezuela, Trump did emphasize that one of the fundamental objectives of such a process would be the management of Venezuelan oil.
“Take back the stolen oil”
During several minutes of the press conference, Trump insisted on the importance of Venezuelan oil to his administration: “The oil companies are going to go in. They’re going to spend money. They’re going to we’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We’re going to get reimbursed for all of that. We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend.”
According to the US President, the Venezuelan oil industry was built and seized by the Venezuelan State, in response to which previous administrations “did nothing”. “We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground. And that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela. That used to be in Venezuela. And it also goes to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused to us by that country.”
“This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken, like we were babies, and we didn’t do anything about it. I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere,” Trump said.
Read More: US bombs Venezuela, captures President Maduro
This idea has been questioned by several experts who believe that Venezuelan oil has only one owner: the Venezuelan people, and that any act of usurpation of Venezuelan resources is nothing more than clear evidence of the true intentions behind the US attack. However, Trump has other plans for this oil: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world. Go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
The Monroe Doctrine reinvigorated
Trump also defended his country’s right to voluntarily dominate the entire American continent, known as the Monroe Doctrine, “America for Americans.” Trump, however, emphasized during the press conference that such dominance has reached a new stage since the attack on Venezuela.
“All the way back, it dated to the Monroe Doctrine. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot. By a real lot … We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don’t forget about it anymore under our new national security strategy.”
He also stated that after what happened in Venezuela, there should be little doubt about the dominance of the United States in the hemisphere: “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again. Won’t happen … Under the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region.”
Trump did not hesitate to clarify that natural resources that are vital to the United States, even if they are located outside its borders, affect its national security: “The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security. These are core to our national security, just like tariffs are. They make our country rich, and they’ve made our national security stronger than ever before. But these are the iron laws that have always determined global power.”
On the importance of having friendly governments in neighboring countries, Trump said: “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world, and we want to make sure we can protect it.”
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