Donald Trump warned that Colombia may be the next country to face a military operation, while clarifying that the US was ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after ousting Nicolas Maduro.
President Trump told Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro to ‘watch his a**’ on Saturday after Petro described Washington’s attack on Venezuela as an ‘assault on the sovereignty’ of Latin America.
Trump continued his threats against the Colombian president on Sunday when reporters pondered what his next target might be while riding Air Force One.
‘Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,’ he said.
When asked whether the U.S. would pursue a military operation against the country, Trump bluntly replied, ‘It sounds good to me.’
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was due to make his first appearance Monday in Manhattan’s federal court after he was captured by US forces in an audacious raid.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez called for ‘peace and dialogue, not war.’
‘We prioritize moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela,’ Rodriguez said.
‘President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now.’
Donald Trump warned that Colombia may be the next country to face a military operation, while clarifying that the US is ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after deposing Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez (pictured center) called for ‘peace and dialogue, not war’ in a statement
The US in September also added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of US assistance to the country.
‘He’s not going to be doing it for very long,’ Trump said of Petro on Sunday. ‘He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it.’
The president also suggested that Cuba ‘is going down’ but stopped short of suggesting they could also face a military operation.
‘I just think it is going to fall. It is going down for the count. You ever watch a fight? They go down for the count. Cuba looks like it is going down,’ he said.
The president spoke on Air Force One on Sunday night as questions remain over who is running the show in Caracas.
‘Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer and it’ll be very controversial,’ Trump said.
A reporter responded by asking: ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means we’re in charge,’ Trump replied.
However, Maduro’s Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Diosdado Cabello still clings tight to the notion that Maduro is the nation’s lawful president.
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Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro (pictured left) described Washington’s attack on Venezuela as an ‘assault on the sovereignty’ of Latin America, which led Trump to respond on Saturday that Petro should ‘watch his a**’
The comments came after the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges
Cabello released a statement through the United Socialist Party of Venezuela doubling down on his boss.
‘Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,’ he said.
Rodriguez struck a more conciliatory tone in a statement of her own on Sunday.
‘We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.’
Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is ‘in a lot of trouble.’
The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.
With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who’s next?
Maduro’s Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Diosdado Cabello still clings tight to the notion that Maduro is the nation’s lawful president
‘It´s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,’ Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. ‘We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.’
Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: ‘They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don´t know.’
Trump, in his administration’s National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring ‘American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere’ as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.
Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary – a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama´s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. – as he’s made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.
Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president’s foundational document as the ‘Don-roe Doctrine.’
He and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a ‘corrupt, illegitimate government’ fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine.
The US government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.
His arraignment is scheduled for noon on Monday in Manhattan federal court before Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
