Hours after being captured by US forces in a daring military operation, President Donald Trump posted a picture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with his hands tied and blindfolded on his Twitter account.
The image showed the 63-year-old South American leader holding a plastic water bottle while wearing what appeared to be a tracksuit on a US warship.
"It was a great operation," Trump said shortly after the US forces were removed from Venezuelan airspace. He later added that some US troops were injured in the attack but no one was killed. Trump said he would fly Maduro and his wife to New York after the military strikes and an operation that looked like a "television show."
Maduro and his wife were taken to the USS Iwo Jima and will be transferred to the court in New York.
The US said 150 aircraft were involved in the mission. The helicopters flew into Venezuela at an altitude of 100 feet above the sea - the aircraft carried the extraction force along with law enforcement officers.
A large fleet of American aircraft, including drones, provided security above them. Bombers and other aircraft seized anti-aircraft equipment. At 1 a.m. local time - approximately 6 a.m. Irish time - the military launched an attack on Caracas.
The US also attacked Maduro and his wife as they left Venezuela. The mission ended just after 3 a.m. local time.
Trump said the United States would "run" Venezuela until there was a safe transfer of power, adding that he would allow American oil companies to go to Venezuela to tap its vast crude oil reserves after the US military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The Venezuelan government condemned what it called Washington's "extremely serious military aggression" and declared a state of emergency.
Maria Corina Machado, a US-backed opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media: "The hour of freedom has come." She called on Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate in the 2024 elections, to assume the presidency "immediately."
Countries such as Russia and Iran, which have long had ties to the Maduro government, condemned the move, but their concerns were shared by Washington's allies, including France and the European Union.
The move to oust Maduro certainly marks another big moment for Trump's second-term foreign policy, as he has not shied away from flexing American military muscle despite vowing to keep the United States out of the war.
Trump has now used US forces twice to carry out dangerous operations against American adversaries. In June, he suggested a US strike on Iran's key nuclear facilities.
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