U.S. Forces Capture Venezuelan President Maduro and His Wife in Caracas in Operation Absolute Resolve
In the early hours of January 3, U.S. forces carried out a raid in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flying them out of Venezuela to face trial in the United States. President Donald Trump spoke about the operation the same day at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
Trump said he had given the order on the night of January 2 and that overwhelming American military power by air, land and sea had been used in the assault. Caine said the operation had been planned and rehearsed for months and involved more than 150 aircraft, and that the helicopters reached Maduro's compound at 2:01 a.m. Caracas time. Trump said not a single American service member was killed and not a single piece of American equipment was lost. The couple were taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima and were being transported to New York.
A superseding indictment unsealed the same day in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charges Maduro and five other defendants in connection with a narco-terrorism conspiracy, a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and weapons offenses, superseding an indictment first unsealed in 2020. At the news conference, Trump said the United States would run Venezuela until a safe, proper and judicious transition could take place, and that American oil companies would move in to fix the country's oil infrastructure.
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于弗吉尼亚州 Arlington 的五角大楼航拍（资料照片）。美国海军照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库同源图。 / Photo: Aerial view of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia (file photo). U.S. Navy photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library image.
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