President Donald Trump has said that the United States needs “total access” to Venezuela’s “oil and other things” to rebuild the South American country.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who has been sworn in as acting president, has vowed to defend the country’s natural resources from plunder.
Trump said that the US would carry out a second strike if new leaders “don’t behave” warning Rodriguez that she could “face a situation probably worse than Maduro.”
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In the early hours of Saturday, American forces swooped captured Maduro and his wife from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and took them back to the US, where they are due to face charges of orchestrating a “narco-terrorism conspiracy.”
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RT reports: In Maduro’s absence, Venezuela’s Supreme Court has granted Rodriguez, who served as vice president, presidential powers and ordered her to immediately assume office in an acting capacity.
However, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump declared on Sunday.
“We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
After carrying out a regime-change operation in the oil-rich South American country on Saturday, Trump said Washington will “run” Venezuela “until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
“We’re in charge,” Trump reiterated on Sunday, noting that Rodriguez was “cooperating” with the US.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello Rondon has told the country’s troops to “trust the leadership,” while Foreign Minister Yvan Gil has accused Washington of seeking to gain control of the Latin American nation’s natural resources.
In a statement, Moscow has condemned the US “aggression,” called for “immediate clarification” on Maduro’s whereabouts and lamented that “ideological hostility has triumphed over businesslike pragmatism.”
