Trump says U.S. will run Venezuela after U.S. captures Maduro

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

"We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "We can't take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn't have the interests of Venezuelans in mind."

Trump said as part of the takeover, major U.S. oil companies would move into Venezuela, which has the world's largest oil reserves, and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure, a process experts said could take years.

Critics said his focus on oil at the press conference raised questions about his administration's efforts to frame the capture of Maduro and a series of deadly missile attacks on alleged drug boats as a law enforcement operation aimed at choking off drug shipments to the U.S.

As part of the dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas and included strikes on military installations, U.S. Special Forces captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, Trump said.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were transported to a U.S. Navy ship offshore before being flown to the U.S. on Saturday evening.

Video showed a plane arriving at Stewart International Airport about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of New York City, with several U.S. personnel boarding the aircraft after it landed. A Justice Department official confirmed Maduro had landed in New York, and video later showed a large convoy arriving at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn under a heavy police presence.

Maduro, who was indicted on various U.S. charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, according to a Justice Department official. His wife also faces charges, including cocaine importation conspiracy.

It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela. U.S. forces have no control over the country itself, and Maduro's government appears not only to still be in charge but to have no appetite for cooperating with Washington. Trump did not say who will lead Venezuela when the U.S. cedes control.