US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Saturday that the US operation in Venezuela, in which it captured President Nicolas Maduro, should serve as a warning to the leaders of Iran and Cuba.
Speaking to Axios’ Barak Ravid, Graham said he had spoken to President Donald Trump about Venezuela on Thursday, adding the President “has been very clear that he believes there is a drug caliphate in our back yard that need to be taken out. The operation has been formulating for the last couple of weeks."
He added that both leaders of Cuba and Iran should be very worried. "There is a new sheriff in town. He has put life into the Monroe doctrine. If I were the leader of Iran, I would go pray in the mosque."
Graham further told Ravid that “the process of liberation" in Venezuela has begun and stressed "it is in America’s interest to see it succeed. We need to help the people to start fresh."
Asked if more military strikes in Venezuela are possible, Graham replied, "All options will be on the table."
US President Donald Trump gave a press conference on Saturday to discuss the capture of Maduro.
Trump stated the US is "going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition."
He claimed, "We don’t want to be involved with having someone else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country."
Later on Saturday, Maduro deboarded a plane at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York after arriving in the United States.
He was seen in grey clothing and handcuffs, escorted by more than a dozen federal agents dressed in black.
Maduro is expected to be transported by helicopter to Manhattan before being taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility that has housed several high‑profile defendants in major federal cases.