US captures not just Maduro but Venezuela and its oil wealth. Trump says country will be run by US

TOI Correspondent from Washington: President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the US would be running Venezuela, bluntly confirming that Washington has not only ousted and seized its President Nicholas Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism, but has also captured the country itself – and its oil wealth.

In a transparent explanation of U.S motivations for the stunning raid, Trump made no secret that Washington intended to exploit the oil wealth of Venezuela, which has the world’s largest energy reserves, asserting that it belonged to US companies which helped the country source it, only for it to be taken over by socialist regimes. He said the U.S would be share the oil wealth with the people of Venezuela.“We are going to make a lot of money. They stole our oil…we built that industry and they took over,” Trump said in a press briefing on the raid that abducted Maduro, leaving no doubt that capturing Venezuela’s oil wealth was also a driving factor behind the invasion of a sovereign country. Trump and his cabinet members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also said leaders of other socialist adversaries like Columbia and Cuba need to “watch their ass,” as they made a forceful show US hegemony in the region, invoking the Monroe Doctrine. Trump referred to it as the “Donroe Doctrine,” and said it had superceded the Monroe Doctrine.The U.S President asserted Venezuela would now be governed by a team led by Hegseth and Rubio in coordination with Maduro’s vice-president Delcy Rodriguez, who has been sworn in as President, and who, according to Trump, has agreed to toe the American line.

He said the U.S was not afraid of putting boots on the ground if required and would run the country “till such time there is a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” If there is any resistance, the U.S was ready with a second show of even greater force, he warned. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over who does not have Venezuela’s interest in their heart,” he added. The U.S President left no doubt that what was presented as a raid to bring an alleged narco-terrorist to justice was also aimed at showcasing a message to foreign adversaries across the world.

Washington would not brook any challenge to its hegemony in the Americas. Without referring directly to China, which had made deep inroads into Venezuela and its oil industry in recent months, Trump said Saturday’s actions by Washington was also meant to convey that US core interests and dominance in western hemisphere will never be questioned or challenged again.Other countries in the region should also expect U.S action if they did not toe Washington’s line, and what happened to Maduro could happen to any of them, Trump and his principals warned.

Maduro, Defense Secretary Hegseth said, “effed around and found out” what happens to those who defied the US. Referring specifically to Colombia’s leader Gustavo Pedro, Trump said he ran “cocaine mills” and he, as Hegseth said, “does have to watch his ass.” Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, also put Havana on notice, saying the country is run by “senile, incompetent men.”