US ‘running’ Venezuela now seems less likely but second intervention possible | Venezuela

The chances of the United States taking direct control of Venezuela appeared to have receded on Sunday following the shocking seizure of President Nicolás Maduro; However, US officials said Washington maintains a 15,000-strong force in the Caribbean and could launch a new military intervention if Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, does not meet its demands.

While Rodriguez struck a defiant tone publicly, the content of his private conversations with U.S. officials was unclear.

After Maduro was kidnapped on Saturday, Donald Trump said that the United States would “rule” the South American country with a population of 30 million. On Sunday, he warned Rodriguez to listen to the wishes of the United States. “If he doesn’t do the right thing, he’s going to pay a huge price, probably bigger than Maduro,” he said. he told the Atlantic.

Rodríguez, 56, pledged loyalty to Maduro on Saturday and condemned his capture as an “atrocity,” but the New York Times reported that Trump officials several weeks ago identified the technocrat as a potential successor and business partner, based in part on his relationship with Wall Street and oil companies.

Trump told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Rodriguez “‘we’ll do whatever you need.'” “I think he was pretty nice, but he doesn’t really have a choice.”

In the capital Caracas, senior government and military figures demanded Maduro’s return but pledged support for Rodríguez as acting leader and called for a return to normality.

“I call on the Venezuelan people to resume all kinds of activities – economic, business and educational – in the coming days,” defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said in a televised speech.

Trump said the US could intervene in other countries. “We definitely need Greenland.” Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted a photo of Greenland painted with the colors of the US flag and the word “soon” on social media, prompting a protest from Greenland’s prime minister.

In a series of TV interviews, Rubio downplayed the possibility of an invasion or occupation of Venezuela. “There is no war. So we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not against Venezuela. We do not have US forces on the ground,” he told NBC.

He said the soldiers were in Caracas for two hours on a “law enforcement mission” that did not require congressional approval. “This was not an invasion. This was not an extended military operation.”

Rubio said the United States would maintain a “quarantine” around Venezuela to block the entry and exit of oil tankers under American sanctions in an effort to maintain “defense” over Maduro’s successor. “We will make our evaluation based on what they do, not on what they say to the public.”

Rubio said the United States has “multiple levers of influence” to respond if Venezuela’s leaders don’t make the “right” decisions. He said the Cuban government, Venezuela’s main ally, had a “big problem” and was in “very big trouble” but declined to give details.

Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, also took issue with Trump’s promise to govern Venezuela, saying “there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered” about what happens next.

The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay said in a joint statement that the US’s actions “set a precedent that is extremely dangerous for peace and regional security and endangers the civilian population.” Keir Starmer said Britain was not involved in the attack but refused to condemn it.

All EU countries except Hungary issued a statement calling for “all actors” to exercise restraint and respect the will of the Venezuelan people in order to “restore democracy”.

While some shops and cafes in Caracas reopened as if they were back to normal, authorities calculated the cost of Saturday’s raid.

Huge queues have formed outside stores in Venezuela’s capital as anxious residents stock up on essential supplies, worried about what the future may hold and the possibility of a “second wave” of attacks as Trump has suggested.

“It’s the same everywhere, there are queues at supermarkets, there are queues at bakeries, there are queues at pharmacies,” said the 71-year-old retiree, one of 20 people who lined up outside a small family grocery market in northeastern Caracas on Sunday morning.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty because people don’t know what might happen in the coming days and no one wants to see another situation like the early hours of Saturday or be caught with their pants down and an empty fridge,” added the man, who asked to remain anonymous.

His 68-year-old wife, who refused to give her name, also couldn’t hold back her tears while thinking about Venezuela’s latest crisis. “I hope everything will return to normal. There can be dialogue. We can live peaceful lives. There will be no major disaster and no one will die,” he said.

Outside one of Venezuela’s largest supermarket chains in Petare, on the east side of Caracas, a young couple stood in a line of 100 people outside a supermarket to stock up on milk, butter and flour. So many people had flocked there that supermarket employees were letting shoppers in in groups.

“[I feel] The 23-year-old woman, who gave only her first name, Sauriany, said about the US raid: “They have no right to interfere with another country like this and do whatever they want.”

Leandro, a 24-year-old line worker, said the streets near their home were abandoned and parents kept their children at home because they were afraid of what might happen in the coming days. “There are so many rumors [the Americans] He may come back… Saturday was terrible. All these explosions. “Planes,” he said.

There was also deep unrest in neighboring Colombia, when its president, Gustavo Petro, ordered the deployment of 30,000 troops to the eastern border with Venezuela in case of violence or a sudden influx of refugees.

Padrino López said a “large portion” of Maduro’s security team, as well as soldiers and civilians, were killed. An unconfirmed report estimated the number killed at 40. The minister said that despite the “cowardly kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, the armed forces will resist “imperial aggression” and ensure independence and sovereignty.

The White House shared footage of the ousted dictator being handcuffed and taking a “criminal walk” to the Drug Enforcement Administration offices in New York before being taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn.

Authorities announced a four-count indictment accusing Maduro of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. Also charged are Flores, his sons, two Venezuelan officials and the alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, a gang the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization. Maduro is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Monday for a hearing.

Prosecution will deepen the humiliation felt by Maduro loyalists and complicate the balance facing his successor.

Rodríguez, who served as vice president and oil minister until his boss was ousted, must balance Washington’s demands for oil and security guarantees with a regime that retains vestiges of the socialism and anti-imperialism of its late founder Hugo Chávez.

Diosdado Cabello, the powerful interior minister, has pledged loyalty to Maduro but has tacitly backed the interim president. “The unity of the revolutionary force here is more than guaranteed,” he said in an audio clip released by the ruling PSUV party.

The Trump administration’s apparent satisfaction with regime change rather than regime change has dismayed Venezuelans who had hoped Maduro’s ouster would lead to democracy.

Trump belittled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel peace prize winner who galvanized Edmundo González’s winning presidential campaign last year, saying she lacked “support” in Venezuela. Millions of Venezuelans respect Machado but hate the military hierarchy that supports the regime.

Rubio said that the United States wants a transition to democracy, but rules out elections in the short term, and that those in charge of Venezuela’s military and police force must decide which direction to go. “We hope that they will choose a different direction than the one Nicolás Maduro chose. Ultimately, we hope that this will lead to a holistic transition.”

In Caracas, runners and cyclists took to the streets again, but residents expressed concern and uncertainty about the future.