NEED TO KNOW
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President Donald Trump shared an apparent photo of captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Truth Social on Jan. 3.
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The politician and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured overnight after the US launched military strikes to topple the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
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Maduro and Flores were loaded onto the USS Iwo Jima and will be flown to New York.
Donald Trump shared a photo on social networks that appears to show the captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduroafter he and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured overnight after the United States launched military strikes in Venezuela to topple the Maduro regime.
IN True Social Post On Saturday, January 3, Trump, 79, shared an unverified image of Maduro, 63, who could be seen wearing large glasses and headphones to limit his vision and hearing.
“Nicholas Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima,” the US president wrote in the caption of the post.
The Venezuelan president and 69-year-old Flores were put on a US Navy ship bound for New York.
Trump accuses Maduro of drug trafficking and “forcing” migration to the United States, as well as using oil money to finance his alleged drug crimes. According to the publication, the politician, who took office in 2013, denied all accusations. CBS News.
Donald J. Trump/truthsocial
A photo released by President Donald Trump purporting to show Nicolas Maduro on the USS Iwo Jima after its capture.
Trump previously confirmed orders for “massive strikes” in Venezuela and the capture of Maduro and Flores in a statement Truth Social earlier January 3rd.
Officials told CBS News and BBC that Trump ordered airstrikes against various targets in Venezuela. Among the affected sites were the main military base of Fuerte Tiuna and the main air base of La Carlota, as well as El Vulcan, the site of a signal antenna, and the port of La Guaira, a seaport on the Caribbean coast, David Smolansky, a spokesman for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, told CBS News.
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The attacks were condemned in a statement by the Venezuelan government, which accused the US of trying to “seize Venezuela's strategic resources, especially its oil and minerals” and “violently undermine the country's political independence”, the BBC reported.
Venezuela also ordered the implementation of all national defense plans, and he called on “all social and political forces in the country to intensify mobilization plans and condemn this imperialist attack,” the newspaper reported.
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The US previously carried out 30 strikes on targeted areas in the Pacific and Caribbean, as well as on speedboats believed to be transporting drugs through the region. More than 110 people have been killed since the strikes began, according to the BBC, and US forces have also reportedly seized two sanctioned oil tankers while pursuing a third.
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