(The Epoch Times)—President Donald Trump warned that Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodríguez could face consequences if she doesn’t “do what’s right” after the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Trump said Sunday the interim leader could also suffer a fate similar to Maduro, who is being detained in a federal prison in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on a range of charges, including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic.
Rodríguez was named as the country’s interim president by the Venezuelan Supreme Court and recognized as such by military officials over the weekend, following Maduro’s capture.
During a Saturday speech, Rodríguez condemned the U.S. capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and said they should be returned. She also said that the president of Venezuela is still Maduro.
Rodríguez in her televised address did not declare herself acting president or mention any political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president, and she gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the United States. At one point, she said that the U.S. military action was in violation of “international law.”
However, Rodríguez said that she left open the door for dialogue with the United States. “Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations,” she said, referring to the Trump administration.
“It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship” after Maduro’s capture, she said.
The Trump administration has said that it is willing to work with the remainder of the Maduro regime.
The U.S. president told The Atlantic that the move to take Maduro by force was necessary, saying that “rebuilding there and regime change—anything you want to call it—is better than what you have right now.”
“Rebuilding is not a bad thing in Venezuela’s case,” he stated. “It’s a totally failed country. It’s a country that’s a disaster in every way.”
Trump also stated other countries could become subject to U.S. intervention. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he said of the island that is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark.
Over the weekend, Trump said in a speech that the United States would run Venezuela and was already doing so. When asked during a press conference who would be running the country until a transition of power can take place, Trump said, “the people that are standing right behind me” are going to be running it “for a period of time.”
Saturday’s operation marked the culmination of a months-long pressure campaign targeting the Venezuelan government that included sanctions, declaring a cartel that Maduro allegedly headed a terrorist organization, and strikes targeting drug-trafficking boats in waters near the country. Maduro has long denied that his regime was involved in the drug trade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
