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LAST UPDATE | 9 hrs ago
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that the newly appointed interim president of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez that she will pay a heavy price if she does not cooperate with the United States following the abduction of Nicholas Maduro.
Rodriguez was Maduro’s vice president until yesterday, when the Supreme Court appointed her as president for 90 days, and Trump had indicated she was cooperating, despite her being part of the regime opposed by the US.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic in a brief telephone interview.
His comments echoed those of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said earlier today that the US was ready to work with Venezuela’s remaining leaders if they make “the right decision” following the abduction of the country’s president Nicholas Maduro and his wife yesterday.
Rubio’s comments in an interview with ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS News appeared to contradict the statement made by Trump yesterday that the US would “run” Venezuela until a transition of power had been completed.
The bombing and incursion into the capital Caracas, and Trump’s declaration at a press conference that followed it, were met with shock and condemnation by many world leaders who called it a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty, although the reaction from US allies – including Ireland – was far more muted.
Maduro is being held in jail in New York, where he is due to be tried on a number of charges related to drug trafficking.
The US has not cited any justification for the incursion and abduction under international law, instead claiming it was a “law enforcement” operation which did not require congressional approval.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan military has backed Rodriguez and called on the public to return to normal activities.
“I call on the people of Venezuela to resume their activities of all kinds, economic, work and education, in the coming days,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said in a televised address.
Padrino Lopez also denounced the “cowardly kidnapping” of Maduro and said that some of his bodyguards were killed “in cold blood,” as well as military personnel and civilians on the Venezuelan side.
The death toll from the attack has yet to be confirmed.
Rubio said today that the US would base its next moves on what Venezuela’s remaining government officials do.
“We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do,” Rubio said today.
“I do know this: that if they don’t make the right decision, that the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage.”
“We are going to see what happens moving forward,” he said.
“We’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what, you know, what they’ve done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward.”
What happens next is highly uncertain.
Trump had said he was “designating people” from his cabinet to be in charge in Venezuela but gave no further details.
He also indicated US troops could be deployed, saying Washington is “not afraid of boots on the ground”.
Rubio also gave no indication that the Trump administration will support opposition figures who have previously been hailed by Washington as the country’s legitimate leaders.
Asked about backing Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Rubio said he had “admiration” for her, but avoided any demands that she – or her party’s candidate in the 2024 election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – become interim leaders.
He said the United States wanted to avoid getting mired in nation building.
“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” he said, referring to previous US interventions.
“This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different.”
A US government plane carrying Maduro landed at a military base shortly after nightfall yesterday, and he was transported by helicopter to New York City, where he and his wife Cilia Flores were to be arraigned on drug trafficking and weapons charges.
The White House posted video on X of Maduro, handcuffed and in sandals, escorted by federal agents through a US Drug Enforcement Administration facility in New York.
“Good night, happy new year,” the 63-year-old leftist is heard saying in English.
At Venezuela’s request, the UN Security Council will meet tomorrow to discuss the crisis.
The US and numerous European governments did not recognise Maduro’s legitimacy, saying he stole elections in 2018 and 2024.
Maduro – in power since 2013 after taking over from his socialist mentor Hugo Chavez – long accused Trump of seeking regime change in order to control Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Trump has offered several justifications for the aggressive policy toward Venezuela, which has aligned with previous administrations but now gone a step further, at times stressing migration, narcotics trafficking and oil.
But he had previously avoided openly calling for regime change.
Several members of Congress quickly questioned the legality of the operation. But Trump’s key ally Mike Johnson, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, said it was “justified.”
With reporting from AFP
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