President Donald Trump will meet Friday with the special forces soldiers who captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a stunning January raid in Caracas, the White House announced.
First Lady Melania Trump will accompany her husband to Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina to greet troops from "Operation Absolute Resolve." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said they would "meet with military families and the heroic members of our special forces who... helped bring narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro to justice."
The January 3 operation saw US forces helicopter into a highly secured Caracas compound under darkness, seizing Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Venezuelan officials reported 83 people killed and over 112 injured in the assault, which included US bombing raids on Venezuelan military targets. No US service members died.
Maduro is currently detained in the United States facing drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty, with his next court hearing scheduled for March 17 in New York. Trump has approved former vice president Delcy RodrÃguez to replace Maduro, conditional on compliance with US demands on oil access and easing state repression.
Trump has repeatedly hailed the operation as a demonstration of American military might. At a January Iowa rally, he praised the "spectacular" operation by a "group of unbelievable talented patriotic people that love our country. You couldn't hold them back."
The president has also hinted at a secret weapon dubbed the "discombobulator" used to disable Venezuelan equipment. "I'm not allowed to talk about it," Trump told NBC News last week. "But let me just tell you, you know what it does? None of their equipment works, that's what it does. Everything was discombobulated."
The meeting underscores the administration's emphasis on projecting power in the Western Hemisphere and showcasing special operations capabilities.
AFP
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