‘Venezuelan forces were waiting’: Trump details how US carried out Caracas strikes; gives ‘larger attack’ warning
United States President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that Venezuelan forces were “waiting” for the American forces with “many ships out”.Trump said that despite being in a “ready position”, Venezuelan forces were “completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated”.He said that the US was “ready” to stage a second “and much larger” attack on the country if needed, saying Washington was initially prepared to do a “second wave” and had assumed it would be necessary – but given the success of last night’s attack, it “probably would now not be”.The US President also said the US has “knocked out 97 per cent of drugs coming in by sea”, and claimed that each boat carrying drugs killed 25,000 people on average. Trump said that the lights in Caracas were shut off as the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured overnight, praising those involved for executing the mission.“No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday, or frankly, in just a short period of time, all Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military, working with us, law enforcement, successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said in a news conference, adding that “it was dark and it was deadly”.Just minutes before the press brief, Trump posted a photo of Nicolas Maduro in custody on a US naval ship and wearing both a blindfold and handcuffs.“Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, along with a picture showing Maduro hours after he was snatched by US forces.The Venezuelan leader had on what appeared to be noise-cancelling ear muffs and grey Nike-branded sweatpants and a jacket.
