The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated that Venezuela’s “illegitimate regime” is the only one that does not cooperate with Washington in the fight against cartels, in a press conference this Friday. The comment comes amid an escalation of tensions between the US and Venezuela, after US President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of war between the two countries.
“Not only does Venezuela not collaborate with the US, it openly cooperates with terrorist and criminal elements. For example, they invited Hezbollah and Iran to operate from Venezuelan territory”, argued the secretary, when justifying why the situation requires “such attention”.
He highlighted that, unlike the Venezuelans, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama cooperate in the fight “in search of stability in the region”. At the time, he also said that Colombia, “with its atypical president”, also contributes to the situation.
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Rubio noted that Washington is not concerned about a possible escalation with Russia over Venezuela and said he expected Moscow to provide rhetorical support to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. He also avoided answering whether the American administration seeks Maduro’s removal, stressing that the strategy is to “protect US interests”.
“Until Trump started to do something about these links with drug trafficking, no one disputed that Maduro and his regime were in collusion with drug traffickers,” added the secretary, without ruling out a meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
