Following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, early Saturday, the United States faces mounting pressure to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Saturday, where he said the U.S. would temporarily “run” Venezuela “until there can be a transition.”
1:34 p.m. Sunday: US allegedly killed Maduro guards in his capture operation
The Venezuelan military accused the U.S. of killing Maduro’s guards in “cold blood” before seizing the leader and his wife, Ceilia Flores, from their bed in an early Saturday raid in Caracas.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said in a nationally televised address that the abduction of Maduro and Flores occurred after “the cold-blooded murder of a large part of his security team — soldiers, both men and women and innocent civilians.”
López also said the military will support the appointment of Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, as ordered by the country’s Supreme Court.
12:01 p.m. Sunday: Trump threatens Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez
Trump gave a warning to Venezuela’s executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who was ordered by the country’s Supreme Court to assume the duties and powers of Maduro.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said in a telephone interview with the Atlantic.
In the same interview Trump also stated he believes in requiring Greenland, saying, “We need it for defense.”
11:40 a.m. Sunday: Secretary of State says US won’t govern Venezuela but enforce “oil quarantine”
In an interview Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States does not plan to play a direct role in governing Venezuela, but instead will enforce an existing “oil quarantine” aimed at pressuring the country’s leadership.
When asked how the U.S. would run Venezuela, Rubio said the focus is on cutting off oil revenue that he argued benefits those in power rather than the public. “I think the important thing to point out is that the key to what that regime relies on and is the economy fueled by oil,” Rubio said. “None of the money from the oil gets to the people. It’s all stolen by the people that are on the top there.”
Rubio said the quarantine is the form of control President Donald Trump referenced, adding, “And so that’s the sort of control the President is pointing to when he says that. We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes.”
To read Saturday’s Live Blog on the Venezuela conflict, click here
