The US will run Venezuela until a safe, proper and judicious transition can be ensured, Donald Trump has said, after US strikes led to the capture of country’s President Nicolas Maduro.
US oil companies would also fix Venezuela's broken infrastructure and start making money for the country, the US president said.
The US launched strikes on Venezuela on Saturday morning in which Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured by US forces and removed from the country.
Venezuela announced a state of national emergency and denounced the military aggression, with the country's vice president saying Maduro is its only leader.
Maduro and Flores were flown out of the capital, Caracas, on a US helicopter in the early hours and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima at an unknown location in the Caribbean Sea.
They were later transferred to Guantanamo Bay before heading to New York, where they face serious charges including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism.
Trump expressed the intent to involve American oil companies in revamping Venezuela’s oil industry, which he described as a total bust. He stated, 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...
In response to the US actions, international reactions ranged from condemnation by Venezuela's allies like Russia and China to calls for peaceful transitions from US allies.
The situation marks an escalation of US involvement in Venezuelan affairs, with significant implications for both nations.
