US President Donald Trump threatened Sunday that Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez will pay a "very big price" if she doesn't co-operate with the United States, after US forces seized and jailed her former boss Nicolas Maduro.
"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 telephone interview held as he arrived at his West Palm Beach golf course in Florida.
US forces attacked Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, bombing military targets and using Special Forces on helicopters to spirit away Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to face federal narcotrafficking charges in New York. Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a court appearance today.
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed stunned Venezuelans. The action is Washington's most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
European Union countries, with the exception of Hungary, Sunday called for restraint by all actors in Venezuela, and said respecting the will of the Venezuelan people was the only way to restore the country's democracy.
"The European Union calls for calm and restraint by all actors, to avoid escalation and to ensure a peaceful solution to the crisis," the 26 EU countries and the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement.
"Respecting the will of the Venezuelan people remains the only way for Venezuela to restore democracy and resolve the current crisis," the statement added.
The Trump administration says it is willing to work with the rest of Maduro's government as long as Washington's goals, including opening access to US investment in the enormous Venezuelan crude oil reserves, are met.
Trump's warning came as Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — was confirmed as interim president by Venezuela's Supreme Court and military officials. Because of her connections with the private sector and deep knowledge of oil, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro's inner circle.
But she has publicly contradicted Trump's claim she is willing to work with the United States. She sounded a defiant note Saturday after the US raid, saying that Maduro was the country's sole legitimate leader and that "we're ready to defend our natural resources."
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged calm Sunday. "Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros," said Cabello, who has close ties to the military.
The Venezuelan government has said Trump's pressure campaign is an effort to take the country's vast natural resources. "We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil," added Cabello.
Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is asking some joint ventures to cut back crude output amid an export paralysis, three sources told Reuters. The OPEC country's oil exports halted after the US last month announced a blockade on sanctioned tankers and seized two oil cargoes.
Trump has long campaigned against US nation building and regime change in foreign countries. However, he said Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela.
The 79-year-old Republican defended his decision, telling *The Atlantic: "You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can't get any worse."
"The country's gone to hell. It's a failed country. It's a totally failed country. It's a country that's a disaster in every way."
Sunday, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out like a normal Sunday morning, though Maduro opponents have been wary of celebrating his seizure.
"Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation caught me without food," said a single mother in oil city Maracaibo. "If this is necessary for my son to grow up in a free country, I'll keep enduring the fear."
Trump has given short shrift to the idea of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support. Machado was banned from the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition says won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.
While many Western nations oppose Maduro, there were calls for the US to respect international law. Democrats demanded a plan for what is to follow. The UN Security Council planned to meet today to discuss the attack, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a dangerous precedent. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticised the US.
Trump also repeated his frequent demand that Greenland — an autonomous territory belonging to Nato ally Denmark — become part of the United States.
Asked what the military action in Venezuela signalled for Greenland, Trump told *The Atlantic: "They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don't know. But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence."
