CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Members of Corpus Christi's Venezuelan community took to Brewster Street Icehouse to celebrate the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
The United States conducted a “large-scale strike” early Saturday in Venezuela and captured Maduro, and his wife out of the country. The two arrived in New York where they are both facing charges Saturday afternoon.
Across the globe, Venezuelans have celebrated the move by U.S. armed forces.
"I's a very, very special day," Jesus Gomez told KRIS 6 News. "We're very happy, we're very optimistic that this is just gonna be the beginning of the end."
Gomez continued, "He's (Maduro) one of the big leaders in the Venezuelan structure of criminal activities. We are expecting that the American population will help the Venezuelan people to get the freedom that we deserve after all 25 years of painful experience with this group of criminals leading the country."
President Trump had long threatened that he could order military strikes on targets on Venezuelan territory after months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs from the South American country. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela said the U.S. military operations were a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Hours after the operation, President Trump said that the U.S. would "run the country" until there is a proper transition.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition, and it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about," President Trump said.
Additionally, President Trump said U.S. oil companies will have a presence in Venezuela.
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