President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday that Venezuela’s new interim leader will pay a “big price” if she does not cooperate with the United States, after US forces seized and jailed former President Nicolas Maduro.
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“If interim president Delcy Rodriguez 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 telephone interview.
US forces attacked Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, bombing military targets and spiriting away Maduro and his wife to face federal narcotrafficking charges in New York. The deposed leader is due to appear in a Manhattan court on Monday.
The Trump administration says it is willing to work with the remainder of Maduro’s government as long as Washington’s goals, particularly opening access to US investment in Venezuela’s enormous crude oil reserves, are met.
However, the United States has backtracked on President Trump’s earlier declaration to govern Venezuela following the capture of President Maduro.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that the United States would not undertake a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country.
Rubio’s statement contrasted Trump’s earlier claim that the US would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation, a statement that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
Rather than seek to topple the entire Maduro government, “we’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do,” Rubio told CBS News.
The United States is fighting drug traffickers, “not a war against Venezuela,” Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
However, he said a large US naval presence would remain in the Caribbean to enforce a blockade of Venezuelan oil exports for “tremendous leverage.”
Despite the success of the initial US operation, questions mounted over Trump’s strategy.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, told ABC News that Americans were left “scratching their heads in wonderment and in fear.”
Trump said Saturday that the United States will “run” Venezuela. And he told The Atlantic that “rebuilding there and regime change — anything you want to call it — is better than what you have right now.”
Trump has made clear that Washington intends to call the shots in Venezuela, with a focus on securing access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
“We’re going to run the country” until a transition can be made, he said Saturday, also insisting that military “boots on the ground” remained a possibility.
In her first remarks since the US attack, Rodriguez struck a defiant note, saying Maduro was the country’s sole legitimate leader and that “we’re ready to defend our natural resources.”
The Venezuelan military announced it recognised Rodriguez, previously Maduro’s vice president, as acting president, and urged people to resume normal life.
Venezuela’s Defence Minister demanded the release of Maduro, maintaining that he was still the rightful leader of the South American country.
General-in-Chief Vladimir Padrino López, during a nationwide radio and television broadcast, stated that Venezuela’s armed forces “categorically reject the cowardly kidnapping” of Maduro.
While Maduro and his wife were captured, Rodriguez and the majority of members of government who helped keep Maduro in power over the years remain in place. The Venezuelan military has also thrown its backing behind Rodriguez, who is Maduro’s loyalist.
The deposed Venezuelan leader was in a New York detention centre ahead of his court hearing on Monday.
Handcuffed and in sandals, Maduro was escorted by federal agents through a Manhattan US Drug Enforcement Administration facility late Saturday, a video posted by the White House on social media showed.
“Good night, happy new year,” the 63-year-old leftist was heard saying in English.
Earlier, he was photographed aboard a US naval ship blindfolded and handcuffed, with noise-cancelling ear protectors.
Maduro, a self-described socialist, led Venezuela with an iron fist for more than a decade through a series of elections widely considered rigged. He came to power after the death of his charismatic mentor, Hugo Chavez.
The streets of Caracas were calm in the wake of the stunning raid, in which US commandos swooped into Caracas on helicopters, backed by attack jets and naval forces, to capture Maduro.
Residents queued up to buy food in grocery stores, and the masked and heavily armed police visible the previous day were gone, AFP correspondents said.
Following Maduro’s capture by US forces, several airlines, including American, United, Delta and JetBlue, declared that they had added extra flights upon resuming scheduled services in Venezuela after many flights in the region were cancelled by the US military action in the country.
American Airlines said it was offering more than two dozen additional flights on Sunday and Monday, including round-trip flights to Antigua, Curacao and Puerto Rico. United Airlines added at least 14 flights, while Delta Air Lines said it added three additional flights on Sunday.
Southwest Airlines announced on Saturday that it added more round-trip Puerto Rico flights to its Sunday and Monday schedules, including round-trip flights to Aruba on Sunday.
As news of Maduro’s capture rippled out, exiled Venezuelans waved flags and celebrated in plazas from Madrid to Santiago. About eight million Venezuelans have fled the grinding poverty and political suppression of their homeland.
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain in a joint statement expressed their “rejection” of the US operation and “concern about any attempt at governmental control or administration or outside appropriation of natural or strategic resources.”
The UN Security Council was scheduled to meet Monday on the crisis.
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