Trump rules out calling elections in Venezuela in the short term: “I am in charge”
US President Donald Trump has This Monday a call for elections in Venezuela was ruled out until the country “recovers its health” and has announced that the secretaries of State and War, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, respectively, and the advisor on security and migration issues, Stephen Miller, will be in charge of coordinating the transition in Venezuela. Furthermore, he has assured that the president in charge of the Andean country, Delcy Rodríguez, is “cooperating.”
In an interview with NBC News, Trump also included in the team in charge of Venezuela its vice president, JD Vancealthough this has remained in the background since a large military and special operations deployment assaulted Caracas on Saturday to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
When asked who in that group will be the main person responsible for making decisions about Venezuela, Trump limited himself to saying that he will be the one who has the last word. “I am in charge“said the president in the telephone interview.
The Washington Post published late Sunday that the White House was considering Miller, the architect of the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policy, for “a higher role” in managing Venezuela.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, explained this Sunday that those responsible for directing the transition in Venezuela will do so from a “policy” perspective and that it will be an “effort of the entire national security apparatus.”
On Saturday Trump said that The US will govern Venezuela and yesterday he assured that “we are in charge” of the country, while warning Rodríguez, who has gone from Maduro’s vice president to acting president of the Latin American country, that she faces a worse future than Maduro’s if she does not “do the right thing.”
In this Monday’s interview with NBC News, Trump, who denied that the opposition leader María Corina Machado is a valid interlocutor to guide the country after the departure of Maduro, he was happy with the attitude of Delcy Rodríguez in these first days as leader of the Chavista Government.
“I have the feeling that they are cooperating. They need help. And I have the feeling that (Rodríguez) loves his country and wants his country to survive,” Trump said.
