Venezuela’s interior minister says US operation to abduct Maduro killed 100 people and wounded dozens.
United States President Donald Trump has said that “only time will tell” how long his country will call the shots in Venezuela after the recent abduction of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces, as the Venezuelan interior minister said 100 people were killed in the operation.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, the president refrained from giving a precise timescale for his country’s direct oversight over the South American nation but indicated that it was likely to last “much longer” than a year when pushed for a response.
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Since Maduro’s forcible removal on Saturday, the US has repeatedly asserted its dominance over Venezuela, saying it would control the country’s oil sales “indefinitely” despite claims by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez that there is no foreign power governing Caracas.
Trump said the US was “getting along very well” with Rodriguez’s government, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “speaks to her all the time”, according to the newspaper. He had earlier threatened her with a fate worse than Maduro’s if she did not comply.
He did not indicate why he had recognised Rodriguez as leader over opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who led a successful election campaign against Maduro in 2024, and declined to give any commitments on whether new elections would be held.
“We will rebuild it [Venezuela] in a very profitable way,” he said. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”
100 killed in US raid
US troops snatched Maduro and his wife on Saturday in a dramatic attack involving 150 jets taking off from 20 airbases, whisking them to New York to face trial on drug and weapons charges.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Wednesday that the raid had left 100 people dead and dozens more wounded, adding that Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were injured in the “terrible” attack but were “recovering”.
Caracas had not previously issued a death toll, but the army had posted a list of 23 names of its dead and Cuba had announced 32 members of its military and intelligence services in the country were killed.
Venezuelan officials have said a large part of Maduro’s security contingent was killed “in cold blood”.
Rodriguez, who Cabello praised during his weekly show on state television as “courageous”, declared a week of mourning starting on Tuesday for members of the military killed in the raid.
