We will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent, and safe.

Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil.

Right now, they’re on a ship, and they'll ultimately head to New York.

After that, a decision will be made — presumably between New York and Miami, or Florida.

Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets, and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars.

They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it.

We never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away.

We built Venezuela's oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force.

Under the now-deposed dictator Maduro, Venezuela increasingly hosted foreign adversaries in our region and acquired menacing offensive weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives.

They used those weapons last night.

The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we superseded it by a lot — by a real lot.

Now they call it the “Donroe Doctrine.” I don’t know.

Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.

The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until U.S. demands are fully met and satisfied.

All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand this: what happened to Maduro can happen to them, and it will happen to them if they aren't fair—even to their own people.

No other country on planet Earth, and it’s not even close, could pull off this kind of operation.

And no other president has ever shown this level of leadership, courage, and resolve — the most powerful combination the world has ever seen.

America can project our will anywhere, anytime.

Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance, until they didn’t.

He f’d around and he found out.

President Trump is deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence into our country — deadly serious about stopping the flow of drugs and poison to our people, deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us, and deadly serious about re-establishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

This is America First. This is peace through strength.

Under President Trump, America is back.

This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd.

It was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal—an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake.

Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience integrating complex air, ground, space, and maritime operations.

Over the past two decades, our special operations forces have honed these skills.

This mission required every component of our joint force, soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardians, working in unison with our intelligence community and law enforcement partners in an unprecedented operation.

We could not have done this mission without the incredible work by various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NGA.

We watched. We waited. We prepared. We remained patient and professional.

After months of work by our intelligence teammates to locate Maduro and understand his movements—where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, even his pets — in early December our force was set, pending a series of aligned events.

Key to the mission was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm, maximize the element of surprise, and minimize risk to the indicted individuals so they could be brought to justice. As the president said earlier today, weather in Venezuela is always a factor this time of year.

Over the weeks through Christmas and New Year’s, the men and women of the United States military remained ready, patiently waiting for the right conditions and for the president to order us into action.

Last night, the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could navigate — through ocean crossings, mountains, and low cloud ceilings.

When tasked with a mission, this organization does not quit.

Our youngest crew member was 20, and our oldest crew member was 49, and they're simply no match for American military might.

On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire and replied to that fire with overwhelming force.

One of our helicopters was hit but remained flyable during the rest of the mission.

The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, EA-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, other support aircraft, and numerous remotely piloted drones.

As the force approached Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling Venezuelan air-defense systems, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of helicopters into the target area. The goal of the air component was, and always will be, to protect the helicopters and the ground force—to get them to the target and get them home.

As the force crossed the final high terrain where they had been masked by clutter, we assessed that the element of surprise had been fully maintained. As the helicopter force ingresssed at low level toward the objective, we arrived at Maduro’s compound at 1:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, or 2:01 a.m. local Caracas time.

The apprehension force descended into the compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline, isolating the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted individuals.

Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible US military with professionalism and precision.

But I want to be clear about one thing: Nicolás Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this.

He was given multiple very, very generous offers and chose instead to act recklessly—to play games.

We’re going to be running Venezuela with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly.

We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It will be paid for directly by the oil companies.

They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing, and we’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be.

As you know, current production is just a minor flow compared to what they have.