Venezuela’s acting president, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, issued a statement on Sunday calling for cooperation with the US after President Trump threatened her with a fate worse than President Nicolas Maduro’s if she did not do the US’s bidding.
“Venezuela reaffirms its commitment to peace and peaceful coexistence. Our country aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international cooperation,” Rodriguez said in a statement on Telegram that was published in English.
“We prioritise moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and other countries in the region, premised on sovereign equality and non-interference,” Rodriguez added.
She invited the US to “collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” and added a plea to President Trump, telling him “our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.”
Throughout the US military buildup in the Caribbean, which led to the US attack on Caracas, Maduro had been calling for peace and cooperation with the US and continued to accept deportation flights from the US despite the US’s escalations. According to a report from The New York Times, he also offered US companies access to Venezuela’s oil and other natural resources as a way to avoid war, but the deal was rejected by the Trump administration.
“He’s offered everything; you’re right. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States,” President Trump said back in October. In an interview on Fox News, the morning Maduro was abducted by US forces, Trump said, “Maduro wanted to negotiate at the end, but I said no, too late.”
Now, Trump is demanding that Rodriguez comply with his demand for the US to “run” Venezuela and ensure US oil companies get oil assets inside the country. If not, Trump has threatened to launch a second wave of attacks on the country.
On Monday, Rodriguez held a meeting of high-level Venezuelan officials and appointed a commission with the task of freeing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who appeared before a US judge in New York on Monday and said they were innocent.
