Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday attempted to clean up the mess President Donald Trump made when he said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an undetermined period after his administration arrested the country’s leader.
During a press conference on Saturday, Trump threatened that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela following the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the country’s dictatorial leader. Maduro was flown to the U.S. on Saturday morning and arraigned on narco-terrorism and gun charges. Trump also did not rule out sending U.S. troops to Venezuela during the transition period.
Rubio attempted to clarify Trump’s comments in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Rubio said the U.S. would institute a “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil, and did not lay out a plan for occupying the country, which The New York Times noted was a “pivot away” from Trump’s earlier comments.
Political analysts and observers seemed stunned by Rubio’s comments.
“There’s so much insanity involved in all of this Venezuela stuff, but perhaps the most absurd part of it is that we are using military force to pressure Venezuela into letting in the US oil industry when the US oil industry is very reluctant to pony up the investment required,” left-leaning podcaster Armand Domalewski posted on X.
“America’s credibility on a rules-based international order is now completely in the toilet,” Chinese human rights and democracy advocate Yaqui Wang posted on X. “I urge my colleagues to seriously explore alternative approaches to advocating for human rights and democracy in China that do not rely on U.S. power or U.S. funding.”
“The stated rationale was to execute an arrest warrant against an illegitimate, authoritarian leader,” Tracy Westerman, founder of the Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, posted on X. “Yet Venezuela was bombed, civilians were reportedly killed, and the same regime is now told it can stay in place if it opens its oil sector to U.S. companies. The precedent is dangerous.”
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