White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the first lady would “meet with military families and the heroic members of our special forces who carried out the successful ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ in Venezuela
US President Donald Trump is expected to meet the special forces soldiers who were part of the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last month.
Trump, along with First Lady Melania, will fly down to North Carolina on Friday to visit the Fort Bragg military base and meet the soldiers, the White House has announced.
The stunning operation saw US forces swoop in by helicopter under cover of darkness and seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a highly secured compound in the Venezuelan capital on January 3.
Eighty-three people were killed and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, which began with US bombing raids on Venezuelan military targets, Venezuelan officials said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the first lady would “meet with military families and the heroic members of our special forces who carried out the successful ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ in Venezuela and helped bring narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro to justice.”
Meanwhile, Maduro is currently held at a detention centre in the US as he faces charges of corruption and drug trafficking, to which he has already pleaded not guilty. His next court hearing is scheduled for March 17 in New York.
Trump has said that relations with
Venezuela have been “extraordinary” ever since his army captured Maduro.
The Trump administration has been opening up Venezuela’s oil reserves to commercial players. “Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been, to put it mildly, extraordinary!” Trump said in his post. “But we speak only for ourselves, and don’t want there to be any confusion or misrepresentation.”
The president added that his government is “dealing very well” with interim president Delcy Rodriguez and her “representatives”. Rodriguez took over the reins of the country after Maduro’s ouster and has been trying to maintain cordial relations with the US.
In the same Truth Social post, Trump clarified that a Wall Street Journal report saying that oil magnate and Republican donor Harry Sargeant III is representing the US in Venezuela is false.
“There is a story about a man named Harry Sargeant III in The Wall Street Journal. He has no authority, in any way, shape, or form, to act on behalf of the United States of America, nor does anyone else that is not approved by the State Department,” he said.
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