We make it our top priority to achieve a just and respectful relationship between the US and Venezuela, Rodriguez wrote on Sunday on Telegram.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
We ask the US government to work together on a cooperation plan aimed at shared development, she continued.
After Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were detained in the most well-known and risky US military operation since the US Navy’s SEAL team killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in 2011, the Venezuelan Supreme Court appointed Rodriguez interim leader.
Rodriguez blasted US actions as “an atrocity that violates international law” in a televised address on Saturday, insisting that “President Nicolas Maduro is the only president of Venezuela.”
Trump had previously suggested in the days following Maduro’s arrest that US officials were in contact with her and that she was willing to cooperate, but Rodriguez’s televised remarks sparked a rift with him.
Trump quickly changed his tone from calling Rodriguez “gracious” to directly threat her after Rodriguez described his administration as a group of “extremists” on television.
In an interview early on Sunday, Trump said, “She will pay a very large price, probably more than Maduro,” adding that Trump would do it.
The US president reiterated that the US was now “in charge,” and that additional strikes against Venezuela could be launched. He also said that he would not rule out putting “boots on the ground” there.
Trump’s actions and stance, which have sparked protests in the US and around the world, contradict both his previous criticism of regime change and his election promise of an “America First” stance and keeping the nation out of endless wars.
Rodriguez’s statement on Sunday, “Headed by a commission to demand the release of Maduro and Flores from US detention,” in which the Venezuelan leader is accused of “narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices,” was followed by another statement.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and her brother Jorge, the nation’s president, will co-chair the commission.
In the wake of the US invasion of Panama, Maduro faces a similar fate as Manuel Noriega, who was imprisoned in his nation’s Vatican embassy in 1990 after hiding out in his country.
Prior to receiving a 40-year prison sentence, Noriega, a staunch US ally, also faced similar charges of “racketeering, drug smuggling, and money laundering.” His sentence was commuted to 17 years for good behavior, but he later received additional sentences in Panama and were imprisoned until he passed away in 2017.
On Monday, Maduro will show up in a federal court in New York.
According to officials from the Trump administration, the seizure is intended to hold Maduro accountable for the 2020 criminal charges against him for conspiring to commit narco-terrorism.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply