U.S. President Donald Trump warned Nicolás Maduro that he needed to surrender weeks before his extraction from Venezuela.
"I told him: 'You have to surrender. You have to surrender' —and he was close, but in the end, we had to do something that was really much more surgical, much more powerful... This was a very important symbol," Trump said this Saturday in an interview with Fox News.
In the same interview, Trump stated that he observed the military operation carried out in Venezuela, which he described as “extremely complex.”
In his statement, he detailed that the attack was comprised of the deployment of dozens of planes, helicopters, and fighter jets, and emphasized the alleged ability of the equipment to penetrate "impenetrable" areas with "steel doors" that —he said— were neutralized "within seconds."
According to his account, the operation —which he said he monitored from Mar-a-Lago, "surrounded by generals and experts"— included communications between "Florida and the ground in Venezuela" and took place after being postponed for several days due to weather conditions.
"The operation was scheduled for four days ago, but the weather was not perfect. We waited for the exact moment," he noted.
In the same exchange, Trump asserted that Nicolás Maduro was “in a stronghold” and that he tried to seek refuge but was “captured in seconds.”
He also stated that there were no deaths among the participating forces: “We didn't lose anyone. There were some injuries, but no deaths. We didn't lose any aircraft. Everything returned home.”
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