United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US might launch a second military strike on Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro if remaining members of the administration do not cooperate with his efforts to get the country \u201cfixed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One raised the possibility of further US military interventions in Latin America, and suggested Colombia and Mexico could also face military action if they do not reduce the flow of illicit drugs to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperation Colombia sounds good to me,\u201d Trump said. He also said that Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela, \u201clooks like it\u2019s ready to fall\u201d on its own without US military action.<\/p>\n
He also insisted the US was \u201cin charge\u201d of Venezuela after the seizure of Maduro, but was also dealing with the new leadership in Caracas.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez said at the same time that she was ready to work together with the Trump administration, asking the US leader for a balanced, respectful relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don\u2019t ask me who\u2019s in charge because I\u2019ll give you an answer and it\u2019ll be very controversial,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he had spoken to Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
Pressed on what he meant, Trump said: \u201cIt means we\u2019re in charge\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the operation was about oil or regime change, Trump replied: \u201cIt\u2019s about peace on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US president said elections in Venezuela would have to wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to run it, fix it, we\u2019ll have elections at the right time, but the main thing you have to fix is it\u2019s a broken country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As he struck his triumphant tone, Trump also had harsh words for other US adversaries, saying Colombia\u2019s leader was \u201cnot going to be doing it very long,\u201d Communist-ruled Cuba was \u201cready to fall\u201d and that Iran\u2019s leadership will be \u201chit hard\u201d if protesters are killed.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration says it is willing to work with the remainder of Maduro\u2019s government as long as Washington\u2019s goals, particularly opening access to US investment in Venezuela\u2019s enormous crude oil reserves, are met.<\/p>\n
Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges. His capture by the United States has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.<\/p>\n
Top officials in Maduro\u2019s government are still in charge and have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemys provocations,\u201d Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio recording released by the ruling PSUV socialist party.<\/p>\n
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed stunned Venezuelans. The operation was Washington\u2019s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.<\/p>\n
Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on state television the US attack killed soldiers, civilians and a \u201clarge part\u201d of Maduro\u2019s security detail \u201cin cold blood\u201d.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s armed forces have been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.<\/p>\n
The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid.<\/p>\n
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez who also serves as oil minister has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela\u2019s top court and has said Maduro remains president.<\/p>\n
Who will run Venezuela?
\nDespite the success of the initial US operation, questions mounted over Trump\u2019s Venezuela strategy.<\/p>\n
Trump said on Saturday the United States will \u201crun\u201d the South American country of about 30 million people.<\/p>\n
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed on Sunday that Washington is not seeking complete regime change or elections.<\/p>\n
The US is fighting drug traffickers, \u201cnot a war against Venezuela,\u201d Rubio told NBC\u2018s \u2018Meet the Press\u2019. However, he said a large US naval presence would remain in the Caribbean to enforce a blockade of Venezuelan oil exports for \u201ctremendous leverage\u201d.<\/p>\n
With questions swirling on Capitol Hill, an administration official told AFP that Rubio will discuss Venezuela in meetings with lawmakers Monday.<\/p>\n
Trump has made clear Washington intends to call the shots in Venezuela, with a focus on securing access to the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US might launch a second military strike on Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro if remaining members of the administration do not cooperate with his efforts to get the country \u201cfixed\u201d. Trump\u2019s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One raised the possibility of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14914,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912\/revisions\/14914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}