President Donald Trump issued a major threat to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, saying she would pay a “bigger” price than Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro if she resisted the United States.
Rodriguez struck a defiant tone on Saturday after Trump suggested she would do the United States’s bidding, calling the abduction of Maduro “barbaric” and saying the country would never become a “colony” of the U.S. Trump didn’t take kindly to the comments, issuing a threat that implied assassination if she resisted U.S. demands.
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“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 in an interview, referring to Rodriguez.
He then flirted with the prospect of regime change, arguing the situation was so bad that any change would be welcome.
“You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse,” Trump said.
His comments were a complete reversal from his comments the day before, when he suggested that Rodriguez was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
“She said, ‘We’ll do whatever you need,’” Trump said of the de facto head of Venezuela. “I think she was quite gracious. But she really doesn’t have a choice.”
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Rodriguez is a rare figure in the Venezuelan government with widespread respect, having stabilized the country’s oil industry during its unparalleled economic crisis. Washington’s comments implied that she would serve as a de facto puppet ruler, but even if she’s sympathetic to such an arrangement, she must tread carefully so as not to anger the security establishment, which controls most levers of power.
The original contrast between Trump’s suggestion that she would serve as a de facto puppet ruler and Rodriguez’s own comments led some analysts to believe a backdoor deal had been cut and her harsh Saturday comments were a means to placate the military and security establishment. Trump’s Sunday comments indicate that that wasn’t the case.
“If there is something the Venezuelan people will never be again, it is slaves, or the colony of an empire,” Rodriguez said on Saturday, declaring that Maduro was still the leader and demanding his release.
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Elsewhere in the Atlantic interview, Trump hinted at possible interventions elsewhere.
“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he said, adding that it was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”