Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro has been taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York after his capture during a US attack on Caracas.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been abducted by US forces, who, according to the Venezuelan government, are questioning him over alleged drug trafficking.
US commandos abducted Maduro from a compound in Caracas yesterday in an assault involving fighter jets, helicopters, warships and ground troops.
US President Donald Trump said that Washington will “run” Venezuela and tap its vast oil reserves without providing details on how it will do so.
Shortly after Maduro’s abduction, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, 56, was sworn in as interim President. Venezuela’s top court appointed Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to lead the country in Maduro’s absence.
Trump said that Rodriguez had talked to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
However, Rodriguez’s remarks soon after the strikes and abduction were diametrical: She criticised the US military action as “brutal aggression” and called for Maduro’s immediate release.
Rodriguez said defiantly on state television as she was flanked by top civilian officials and military commanders, “There is only one President in this country, and his name is Nicolas Maduro.”
Maduro’s abduction has triggered mixed reactions among Venezuelans and world leaders with China, Russia, Brazil and Iran condemning the US move and EU leaders calling for a democratic transition and international law to be respected.
The UN Security Council is expected to meet on Monday to discuss the situation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that the US actions set “a dangerous precedent.”
Rubio Appears To Soften Trump’s Stance Of US Running Venezuela
Meanwhile, US Secretary of state, Marco Rubio appeared to significantly soften President Donald Trump’s statements that the US will “run” Venezuela and he’s not afraid to put military “boots on the ground.”
Instead, he made clear that Washington is ready to try working with Maduro’s Vice President and now acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, and the rest of the ousted leader’s cabinet.
Rubio noted that the United States is ready to work with Venezuela’s remaining leaders if they make “the right decision.”
“We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do. 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. 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.”
Marco Rubio
He said the US wants 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,” he added.
Rubio’s remarks contrasted with Trump’s statements that “we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place”, and that his own cabinet officials would be in charge of the country.
Rubio said that US pressure would remain on Venezuela in the form of the large naval presence in the Caribbean and an oil export embargo “that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next.”
Speaking to reporters, Rubio said that congressional authorisation wasn’t needed before the operation “because this wasn’t an invasion.”
He noted that he hopes Maduro’s removal will lead to “a better Venezuela”, but added that the “number one objective is America.”
Asked whether he thinks Interim President Delcy Rodríguez is now the legitimate President of Venezuela, he remarked that the US does not believe the regime is legitimate.
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