US spirits away Maduro

Venezuela Prez, wife captured from bedroom after US helicopters reach deep into Caracas

- Agencies

US special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his bedroom early Saturday in an operation without modern precedent, plucking a sitting head of state from sovereign territory to face American criminal charges.

President Donald Trump posted a photograph of the blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro aboard a military aircraft—a striking image of one president displaying another he had ordered seized. The Delta Force raid on Maduro’s residence within the Ft. Tiuna military installation in Caracas culminated months of escalating Trump administration pressure on the oil-rich South American nation, the Associated Press reported.

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were dragged from their bedroom in the middle of the night, people familiar with the matter told CNN. The couple are now aboard the USS Iwo Jima heading to New York, where they face narco-terrorism charges, Trump said.

In a striking announcement at his Mara-Lago news conference later in the day, Trump said the US would govern Venezuela temporarily. “We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said, claiming American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs the US was administering the country, according to AP.

The operation involved more than 150 aircraft and was carried out on the direct orders of Trump, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said.

The streets of Venezuela appeared calm as the sun rose, Reuters reported. Soldiers patrolled some parts and some small pro-Maduro crowds began gathering in Caracas.