Delta Force ripped Maduro and wife from their beds as they slept – two days after Venezuelan president begged Trump for peace
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia were captured by a unit of elite Delta Force soldiers while they slept in their beds.
The left-wing leader, who will now stand trial in New York City on drugs and weapons charges, was taken in the early hours of Saturday morning, CNN reported.
A source told the network the operation – which struck five Venezuelan sites including three in the country’s capital Caracas – did not result in any casualties.
Trump said the Maduros have been taken to the USS Iwo Jima assault ship and that they’ll later be transported to New York City.
He hailed the operation as ‘brilliant’ in a brief New York Times interview early Saturday.
The president later called into Fox News‘s breakfast show Fox & Friends, excitedly telling its hosts: ‘I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence – it was an amazing thing.’
President Trump says he will hold a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, at 11:30am ET on Saturday.
Explosions were seen ripping across Caracas during the daring raid, with Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab insisting that ‘innocents’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the US operation.
Donald Trump hailed his government’s ‘brilliant’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the early hours of Saturday
Two days before the raid, Maduro issued a plea for peace to the United States, amid reports he’d begun sleeping in a different place every night in a bid to avoid capture.
Speaking to a Spanish journalist, Maduro said: ‘The American people should know they have a friendly, peaceful people here, and a friendly government as well.
‘They should know that our message is very clear: “Not War. Yes Peace”.’
During the same interview, Maduro said he’d be willing to work with the US to curtail drug trafficking. Trump claims Maduro is the head of a narcotics cartel which has flooded the United States with illegal substances.
Speaking to The New York Times at 4:30am on Saturday morning, nine minutes after announcing the raid on his TruthSocial website, Trump said: ‘A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.
‘It was a brilliant operation, actually.’ Asked if he had consulted Congress prior to authorizing the strike, Trump said: ‘We’ll discuss that.’
Maduro is due to stand trial in Manhattan and will likely be housed in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn – the same federal facility that currently houses alleged United HealthCare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione.
American forces do not appear to have encountered much resistance from the Venezuelan military, despite Maduro claiming he was ready for any attack.