Selbst enge Verbündete fragen sich, warum Trump Venezuela regieren will

The military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “offered Trump a moment of triumph in his months-long quest to topple the Latin American despot,” Vivian Salama, Nancy A. Youssef, Jonathan Lemire, Shane Harris, Isaac Stanley-Becker, and Sarah Fitzpatrick report. “But even some of Trump’s closest allies told us that they were unnerved by the president’s brash, no-plan-for-tomorrow approach to ousting a sovereign nation’s leader.”

The raid had been planned and rehearsed for months. “The CIA put operatives in Venezuela in August after Trump ordered covert operations,” the writers report. “Those operatives studied what Maduro wore, what he ate, where he traveled, what pets he kept. Delta Force trained for his capture using a mock safe house. For weeks, U.S. aircraft approached Venezuelan airspace but stopped short of crossing the line, instead seeking insight into how the Venezuelan military might respond to an attack, defense officials said.”

“They finally—about two weeks ago—gave Maduro a final warning. It was through official channels, in a way that communicated the seriousness of it,” a person familiar with the planning told the writers. “There was no ambiguity,” this person said. “This was Maduro’s last chance for an off-ramp.”

During the raid, U.S forces engaged in a shoot-out with Venezuelan guards, then apprehended Maduro in his presidential palace as he sought refuge in a steel safe room. But a few hours later, Trump “almost eclipsed the dramatic operation’s success when, from behind a podium on a makeshift stage in a gold-clad room at Mar-a-Lago, he unveiled another surprise: America now runs Venezuela, he said, and wants the country’s oil reserves to foot the bill,” the writers report.

“Trump provided few details as he declared that a group of officials who were standing near him at the news conference, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, would ‘run’ the country until a ‘safe, proper, and judicious transition’ could take place,” the Atlantic staff writers report. “It was a stunning announcement for a president who campaigned on the perils of nation building.” 

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— Evan McMurry, senior editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*