Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was due to appear in a US court on Monday after his weekend capture by American forces, with US President Donald Trump leaving open the possibility of another incursion if the United States doesn’t get its way with Venezuela’s interim government.
Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with US 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 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 has plunged Venezuela into uncertainty.
Trump administration officials have portrayed the seizure as a law-enforcement action to hold Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 that accuse him of narco-terrorism conspiracy.
But Trump himself has said other factors were at play, saying the raid was prompted in part by an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and the country’s decision to nationalize US oil interests decades ago.
“We’re taking back what they stole,” he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida. 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.