WASHINGTON, January 7. /TASS/. The US administration is in close contact with Venezuela’s interim authorities, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

"With respect to Venezuela, the Trump administration led by Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio, the Vice President [JD Vance], and the President’s entire national security team is in close correspondence with the interim authorities in Venezuela," she said.

"We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now," she stated. "and the President [Donald Trump] has made it very clear that this is a country within the Western Hemisphere, close by the United States that is no longer going to be selling illegal drugs to the United States of America. It’s no longer going to be sending and trafficking illegal people and criminal cartels to kill American citizens, as they have in the past. And the President is fully deploying his peace through strength foreign policy agenda."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto said on January 3 that the United States had attacked civilian and military facilities in Caracas. He condemned Washington’s actions as a military aggression. A state of emergency has been imposed in Venezuela. US President Donald Trump has confirmed the attack on Venezuela. According to the US leader, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife have been captures and taken out of the country. They were later brought to the United States and are held in a detention facility in Brooklyn.