US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning on Sunday to Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, saying she would pay a potentially larger price than her former boss, ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, if she does not cooperate with the United States.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, US forces staged a complex raid that saw Maduro and his wife seized from their home, jailed and airlifted to New York to face trial on “narcoterrorism” and illegal weapons charges.
“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 a brief telephone interview on his way to the golf course.
Trump’s comments, the latest of several touting his leadership, his exercise of power and the prowess of the US military, did not specify exactly what price Rodríguez, the country’s vice-president, might face, although it potentially includes her own removal and prosecution.
But speaking separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to walk that back, indicating he had spoken to Rodríguez and that she had pledged cooperation with Washington.
“She, I think, was quite gracious,” Rubio said. “But she really doesn’t have a choice”.
