Donald Trump warned Venezuela’s new leader, Delcy Rodriguez, “if you don’t do the right thing, you will pay a bigger price than Maduro.”
His comments to US magazine The Atlantic come as outgoing President Nicolas Maduro is scheduled to appear in a New York court on Monday.
The United States accuses Maduro, who is accused of drug trafficking and weapons crimes, of running a ‘narco-terrorist’ regime, which Maduro denies.
Rodriguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president, adopted a conciliatory tone at his first cabinet meeting on Sunday, offering cooperation with the United States.
“We call on the U.S. government to work with us on a cooperative agenda oriented toward common development within the framework of international law,” she said.
With the support of Venezuela’s Supreme Court and military, she is scheduled to be sworn in as president in Caracas on Monday at 8am local time (12pm GMT).
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Saturday that the United States was not at war with Venezuela after an airstrike in Caracas led to the detention and deportation of Maduro and his wife to the United States.
Some Democratic lawmakers called the operation an “act of war.”
“If she doesn’t do the right thing, she’s probably going to pay a bigger price than Maduro,” Trump said of Rodriguez in an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday.
He added of Venezuela, “Whatever you call regime change, it’s better than what it is now. It can’t get any worse.”
On Saturday, President Trump pledged that the United States would “run” the country until a “safe, appropriate and smart transition” was possible.
President Trump also promised that American oil companies would move to the United States to repair infrastructure and make money for the country.
Despite the US president’s claims, Maduro’s allies are still in power.
The Cuban government said 32 “brave Cuban fighters” were killed when U.S. forces attacked and captured Maduro and his wife. Cuba, Maduro’s longtime socialist ally, announced two days of national mourning.
In several television interviews Sunday morning, Rubio defended the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, emphasizing that the action does not mean the U.S. is waging war with the South American country.
“We’re at war with drug trafficking organizations. It’s not a war with Venezuela,” Rubio said Sunday morning on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The secretary of state also told CBS that if Venezuela “does not make the right decision,” the United States will “use a variety of tools to protect our interests.”
This includes the “quarantine” imposed by the United States on Venezuelan oil, he said.
“We will judge everything based on what they do, and we will see what they do,” he added.
Trump also threatened Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One.
He did not rule out military action against Colombia, saying “It sounds good to me,” and called Colombian President Gustavo Petro a “sick man.”
“Colombia is also very sick, run by a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to America,” Trump said. “He won’t be doing that for very long.”
Maduro, who leads Venezuela’s United Socialist Party and has been in power since 2013, has often been accused of using violence to repress opposition groups and silence dissent in Venezuela.
He is widely seen by his opponents at home and foreign governments as having illegitimately won Venezuela’s 2024 elections.
The Venezuelan left-wing leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested at their compound and flown to the United States as part of a dramatic special forces operation that saw an attack on a military base in the early hours of Saturday.
The couple were later charged with weapons and drug offenses and are scheduled to appear in court in New York on Monday.
Maduro has denied being a cartel leader and has accused the United States of trying to use the war on drugs to oust him and seize Venezuelan oil.
U.S. officials said no U.S. troops were harmed in the attack, but Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said “the majority” of Maduro’s security team and “soldiers and innocent civilians” were killed in the U.S. operation.
Asked why the United States did not seek congressional approval before operating in Venezuela, Rubio told ABC: “It wasn’t necessary because this wasn’t an invasion.”
He described it as a “law enforcement operation” and said Maduro was arrested at the scene by FBI agents.
He added that he could not inform Congress of an operation like this “because information would be leaked.”
In an interview with an American media outlet, Rubio was asked whether the United States recognizes Rodríguez as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
He responded that “this is not about a legitimate president” because the United States does not recognize that regime as legitimate.
Some Democratic lawmakers criticized the administration’s actions.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the covert military operation, conducted without congressional approval, “was not just a drug operation.”
“It was an act of war,” Jeffries told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“This was a military action involving the military and Delta Force, believed to have involved at least 150 military aircraft and thousands of troops, believed to have involved dozens of ships, off the coast of Venezuela and South America.”
Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS’s Face the Nation that there was “zero outreach” from the Trump administration, adding, “No Democrat that I know of has ever received any support.”
In an interview with ABC this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer questioned the legality of the U.S. operation.
Schumer said he believes Maduro is a terrible person but “does not treat one lawlessness like another lawlessness.”
“We have learned that when America attempts regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay in blood and dollars,” Schumer said.
Schumer and Jeffries have pledged to support a resolution that, if passed by both houses, would bar Trump from taking further action in Venezuela without congressional approval.
The governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain said in a joint statement that U.S. military action “sets an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and puts civilians at risk.”
Additional reporting by Laurence Peter
