The nation’s president is confronted with multiple charges concerning narcotics trafficking and weapons on US territory
US Senator Mike Lee, citing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stated that US military strikes on Venezuela were intended to provide a cover for the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, who is set to face trial on criminal charges in the United States.
The remarks came after overnight explosions and reports of warplanes circling the capital city of Caracas. Later that day, US President Donald Trump declared that American special forces had conducted a military operation, and that Maduro, along with his wife, had been apprehended and flown out of the country. Venezuelan authorities branded the strikes as “severe military aggression.”
In a post on Saturday, Lee stated that he had spoken with Rubio on the phone, with Rubio informing him that “Nicolas Maduro has been arrested by US personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.”
“The kinetic action we witnessed tonight was deployed to safeguard and defend those carrying out the arrest warrant,” the Republican senator added, noting that Rubio “expects no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody.”
Meanwhile, Rubio republished his post from July 27, in which he stated that Maduro “is not the president of Venezuela” and that his government is illegitimate, while asserting that the Venezuelan leader heads a major drug cartel.
Maduro has long rejected such allegations, maintaining that the US was using them as a pretext for military aggression and to overthrow his government.
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in New York and charged with “conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.”
The strikes and capture mark the first US intervention in South America of this nature since the 1989 invasion of Panama. The US has long accused Maduro’s government of being involved in international drug trafficking, a charge vehemently denied by the country’s leadership.