President Donald Trump praised the military operation in Venezuela on Tuesday, saying the US will accelerate weapons production following the complex mission.
Trump described the scale and complexity of the operation to the House Republican Conference at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
"It was so complex. 152 airplanes, he said.
"Many talk about boots on the ground. We had a lot of boots on the ground," said Trump, claiming no US forces were killed while "a lot of people were killed" on the other side.
Trump said electricity for almost the entire country was turned off during the operation.
"That's when they knew there was a problem. There was no electricity," he said. "The only people with lights were the people that had candles."
Trump emphasized the superiority of American weapons, saying no other country would be able to conduct the operation. "Nobody has our weapons. Nobody has the quality of our weapons," he said.
The US president said the problem is that weapons are not produced fast enough, vowing to accelerate production.
"We're going to start producing them much faster. We're going to be very tough on the companies ... We're not letting that happen anymore," he said.
Regarding captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump said: "They've been after this guy for years and years and years."
He accused Maduro of being "violent," claiming "he's killed millions of people" and that Venezuela has "a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas."
Trump also noted Maduro "tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he's a violent guy."
Washington carried out Operation Absolute Resolve on Saturday, when Maduro was captured and taken into US custody.
US forces launched widespread airstrikes on targets in northern Venezuela, including air defense and communications infrastructure, while special operations raided Caracas to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
The Trump administration has framed the operation as enforcing a revival of the Monroe Doctrine, and action against alleged narcotrafficking and corruption, while also explicitly linking it to securing influence over Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
