Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was due to appear in a U.S. President Donald Trump leaving open the possibility of another incursion if the United States doesn’t get its way with the country’s interim leader. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with U.S.
efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking. He also threatened military action in Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba’s communist regime “looks like it’s ready to fall” on its own. The Colombian and Mexican embassies in Washington did not immediately return requests for comment.
The remarks by Trump came on the eve of Maduro’s scheduled appearance on Monday before a federal judge in New York. Maduro was detained during a military raid on Saturday in Caracas that drew international concern and plunged Venezuela into uncertainty. “We’re taking back what they stole,” he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida.
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“We’re in charge.” Oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the country’s petroleum industry, Trump said. “They’re going to spend billions of dollars and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground,” he said. A scatter plot showing crude oil reserves on the horizontal axis and crude oil production on the vertical axis for OPEC and non-OPEC countries at the end of 2024.
Global oil prices edged up in choppy trade as investors considered the implications of U.S. military action in Venezuela, while stock markets rose in Asia.Meanwhile, Maduro’s government remains in power in Caracas, and top officials have remained defiant. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who has taken over as interim leader, has said Maduro remains president and has contradicted Trump’s claim that she is willing to work with the United States.
Rodriguez, who also serves as oil minister, has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle. Maduro, 63, faces charges that accuse him of providing support to major drug trafficking groups, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Tren de Aragua gang. Prosecutors say he directed cocaine trafficking routes, used the military to protect shipments, sheltered violent trafficking groups and used presidential facilities to move drugs. The charges, first filed in 2020, were updated on Saturday to include his wife, Cilia Flores, who is accused of ordering kidnappings and murders.
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