US military officials said the US does not currently have any personnel on the ground in Venezuela. The statement was made the day after President Donald Trump said the US was running the country. 

On Tuesday, the Pentagon claimed that no troops were on the ground in Venezuela, raising questions about Trump’s assertion that the US was controlling Caracas. “We are going to run [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had,” the President said on Saturday. “We are there now, and we are going to stay until the proper transition takes place.”

The US has engaged in a massive military buildup in the Caribbean, including 15,000 soldiers, an aircraft carrier strike group, an attack submarine, and warplanes. Those troops have conducted strikes on dozens of drug boats, seized tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro. 

After Maduro was removed from Venezuela, the Supreme Court named Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as interim president. Trump initially said that the US was prepared to work with Rodríguez, but he later threatened to remove her from power if she did not comply with Washington’s demands. 

Trump claimed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and War Secretary Pete Hegseth would be “running” Venezuela. The President added that he was willing to deploy American troops to Venezuela to enforce his dictates. 

Rodríguez says she is willing to work with the US, but maintains that Venezuela is a sovereign nation.