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President Donald Trump said the US would temporarily "run" the Venezuelan government and seek to overhaul its oil sector, hours after he ordered a large-scale military assault on Saturday that resulted in the capture of Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro.
Trump launched the unprecedented military attack after months of ordering escalating US hostilities against the South American country, including the seizure of oil tankers and a recent missile attack on a dock area. Trump said the US plans to run Venezuela's government until there is adequate time for a transition. He threatened to deploy "all military options" against the country, including putting US military forces on the ground, if his demands were not met.
"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said during a press conference.
Trump's assertion of indefinite US control over Venezuela is unprecedented, and he has yet to answer basic questions about his plans to control a country of 28mn people. The US Congress has not authorized any military operations in Venezuela, and Trump administration officials claimed authority for Saturday's military strike using Maduro's arrest warrant. Trump said he was designating "various people" to run the country, and that he also he intends to overhaul Venezuela's oil sector.
"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," Trump said.
Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino denounced the assault earlier on Saturday as "vile and cowardly" and said the attack was a "flagrant violation" of the UN Charter and international law. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who previously fled the country under the threat of arrest, called for the recognition of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who most nations agree won a 2024 election against Maduro by a wide margin.
Billions in oil
A US embargo on most Venezuelan oil exports remains in effect, Trump said, enforced by an "armada" of US military vessels. Venezuela, a member of the Opec+ oil producer group, exported about 700,000 b/d of crude in November, according to oil analytics firm Kpler.
Chevron operates in Venezuela with state-owned PdV under a waiver from US sanctions and imported about 120,000 b/d of crude from Venezuela to the US in December, based on data from Kpler ship tracking.
Trump said he sees a role for US oil companies in rebuilding Venezuela's oil industry and related infrastructure, which has been degraded by sanctions and limited investment. In the press conference, Trump reiterated his complaints that Venezuela's government under late former president Hugo Chavez nationalized the assets of US oil companies, which he said was one of the "largest thefts of property" in US history. Trump claimed that future oil revenue in Venezuela would defray the costs of temporarily administering the government.
"We're going to have our very large US 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," Trump said.
International reaction
Government leaders across South America condemned the attacks.
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the attack crossed an "unacceptable line", and Colombia president Gustavo Petro called for the UN Security Council to convene. EU foreign affairs commissioner Kaja Kallas called for "restraint" and said "the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected," in a post on social media site X.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said the strike in Venezuela was "really genius", but he predicted Democratic lawmakers might criticize the attack as "not constitutional". Democrats condemned the attack, which took place without the US military informing congressional leaders. US Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said using the military for "regime change" could open the door to countries like China and Russia doing the same.
The future of officials in Maduro's administration is unclear.
That Venezuela's defense minister, vice-president Delcy Rodriguez and interior minister Diosdado Cabello have responded publicly to the operations "demonstrates that the leadership beyond Maduro remains unharmed, even though their level of coordination is unclear and their capacity to organize must now be reduced," Teneo political analyst Nicholas Watson said.
