The interim president of Venezuela has issued a statement after US armed forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In an operation on January 3, US forces bombed the Venezuelan capital Caracas and special forces detained President Maduro.
Maduro is currently being held in New York, where he is awaiting a court appearance.
Donald Trump‘s actions in Venezuela have been met with widespread condemnation as going against international law, while many have also welcomed Maduro’s arrest.
Since Maduro’s detention, Trump has said that the US will ‘run’ Venezuela, which has the largest confirmed oil reserves in the world, though it is not clear precisely what Trump meant by ‘running’ the country.
Now, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has issued a message to the US after being sworn in.
Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe (Donald Trump’s Truth Social Account/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We prioritize moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela,” Rodriguez said. “President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.
“This has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now.”
She added: “We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
An indictment filed against Maduro accuses him of using his position to traffic drugs into the US, saying that Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials ‘abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States’.
According to Reuters, Maduro has now been indicted on four counts – narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Nicolás Maduro pictured under armed guard in New York (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump has claimed that US military operations in Venezuela did not constitute an ‘invasion’, saying that they were there for ‘law enforcement’.
He said: “This was not an invasion. This was not an extended military operation.”
In a joint statement, the governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay said that US actions ‘constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population’.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stressed the importance of international law, but refused to condemn US actions or even say whether they have broken international law, though he did say that the UK had no part in the US attack.
Maduro is now set to make a court appearance in New York, with extraordinary photos showing him being escorted by US federal agents.
