The president of the United States, , is “the fucking master.” The Argentine journalist Martín Caparrós could not have described it better, in a viral column in following the North American operation that, last Saturday, ended with the arrest of the president of Venezuela, , and his wife, Cilia Flores. There is no doubt about the Republican’s, let’s say, assertiveness and tonight he gave a new example of this by appearing before the press and, incidentally, launching threats to other countries, especially Colombia, but also Cuba.
Aboard Air Force One, which was taking him to Washington from his residence in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), where he has been for the last two weeks (the White House as such), the North American president has demanded from the new president in charge of Venezuela, “full access” to the country in terms of natural and other resources, while threatening to carry out new attacks on the Caribbean nation if the Government “does not behave.”
“What we need (from Delcy Rodríguez) is total access. Total access to oil and other things in the country that will allow us to rebuild it,” said Trump, who emphasized infrastructure, since “roads are not being built and bridges are falling down,” he says.
He has once again assured that they will repair the infrastructure they built and that, according to him, Chavismo stole from Washington.
Trump has once again reiterated this morning that his operation to capture and bring Maduro to justice in his country for “narcoterrorism”, which involved bombings in Caracas and nearby regions that are supposed to have left at least 32 dead, responds to what he called the Donroe Doctrine, paraphrasing the old Monroe Doctrine, since “the (Western) hemisphere is ours.” This is what analysts had been announcing for months, which the tycoon now recognizes without a mask, and which is reminiscent of other times, again.
The Republican assured that both the mission, baptized Absolute Resolution, the name of the operation to capture Maduro in Caracas on Saturday, and his new Donroe doctrine pursue “peace in the world”, despite the fact that they are accompanied by the arrest of leaders, bombings and blockades, little to do with the image of a peacemaker and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump boasts and, also, contrary to his electoral promise of putting America first (sic), promoting foreign action when the data inflation or unemployment begin to worsen, he faces the longest government shutdown ever or scandals like that of pedophiles explode in his face.
And if not…
The US president stressed that his country’s Army remains prepared to carry out a second attack in Venezuela like the one that hit the Venezuelan capital, La Guaira, Aragua and Miranda yesterday. When asked if in the current situation – with Maduro in a US prison and Rodríguez in command – that second attack is ruled out. Trump was blunt: “no, it is not. If they do not behave, we will launch a second attack,” reports EFE.
But he is not satisfied with Venezuela and, for this reason, he has once again issued warnings against his Colombian counterpart, since he said that the possibility of sending his country a mission like the one that culminated in the capture of Maduro sounded “good” to him. “Colombia is governed by a sick man, who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States, but he is not going to continue for much longer, let me tell you,” he stated. He then insisted that Petro has “cocaine mills, cocaine factories”, a weighty accusation for which he has not presented evidence, as in the past, such as in the attacks on boats in the waters of the Caribbean Sea that have left more than one hundred dead since October. When a journalist asked him if the US is considering “an operation like the one in Venezuela,” Trump did not rule it out: “It sounds good to me.” It was the exact phrase.
Petro has denounced in these hours the illegality of the US attack on Maduro. “Without a legal basis to carry out an action against the sovereignty of Venezuela, the detention becomes a kidnapping,” he said this afternoon in his X account about the capture of Nicolás Maduro. “What Donald Trump has done is aberrant. They have destroyed the rule of law worldwide. They have bloodily urinated on the sacred sovereignty of all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” he added.
He has also repeatedly defended himself against the accusation that he is a drug trafficker. “My name in 50 years does not appear in the judicial files on drug trafficking either before or now. Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump,” he said this Sunday from his “Because of what I said, you took the pride of punishing my opinion,” Petro considers. After that demonstration, the US Government revoked the visa of the Colombian president, remember .
More: Trump also spoke again about the offers to send the US Army to Mexico to combat drug traffickers in that country, an issue that, in his words, he has raised with the president, of whom he repeated that “she is a great person” but that “she is a little afraid of the cartels controlling Mexico.”
“Something has to be done with Mexico. Mexico has to organize, because (narcotics) are leaking from Mexico. And we are going to have to do something. We would love for Mexico to do it. They are capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico,” he said. Trump assured that “every time” he has spoken with Sheinbaum he has offered to send her troops, which the president has repeatedly rejected due to the country’s sovereignty.
He has also had words about Cuba, since he considers that the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel “is about to fall” and that he does not believe that “any action” is necessary on the part of his country on the island. “I don’t know how they are going to be able to support themselves, they have no income. They received all their income from Venezuela, from Venezuelan oil,” said the US president.
All those pointed out by the tenant of the Oval Office are left-wing governments, needless to say.
Who’s in charge here?
When asked about a supposed transition process in the future in Venezuela and about the temporary management of the country, Trump has also once again given controversial answers. “Don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer and it will be very controversial,” he told a journalist. “What does that mean?” the reporter continued. “That we are in charge,” responded the New York tycoon.
Trump to govern in Venezuela because “he does not have sufficient respect or support in the country” and that members of his Cabinet, such as the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, or the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, will “govern” the South American country for an indeterminate period.
Trump also seemed to rule out the possibility of holding elections soon in Venezuela. “I think we are focusing more on fixing it, on preparing it first, because it is a disaster. The country is a disaster,” he said.
This morning the newspaper published an analysis in which it makes clear the contradictions on this point in the Administration, since when Rubio, the chancellor, was asked how the US planned to govern Venezuela, he did not present a plan for a US occupation authority, like the one that George W. Bush’s government established in Baghdad during the Iraq war (2003), but instead spoke of coercing a Venezuelan government led by allies of Maduro to implement changes in its policies.
US forces will continue to prevent tankers on the US sanctions list from entering and leaving the country until the administration opens the state oil industry to foreign investment – presumably giving priority to US companies – and makes other changes, it stated in the program. “That is still valid, and it is an enormous influence that will continue until we see changes, not only to promote the national interest of the United States, which is a priority, but also for a better future for the Venezuelan people,” said the head of North American diplomacy.
And in a later tense exchange on , Rubio complained that people were obsessed with Trump’s declaration that the US government would govern Venezuela. He added that “it is not about governing, but about governing politics in this regard.”
