Il Messaggiere - Trump insists US 'in charge' in Venezuela

Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez said at the same time that she was ready to work together with the Trump administration, asking the US leader for a balanced, respectful relationship.

Trump has faced searching questions over his repeated assertions that Washington is now running Venezuela following the US military operation that spirited away Maduro and his wife before dawn Saturday.

The deposed Maduro is due to appear in a New York court Monday to face federal narcotrafficking charges.

"We're dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial," Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he had spoken to Rodriguez.

Pressed on what he meant, Trump said: "It means we're in charge."

The Trump administration says it is willing to work with the remainder of Maduro's government as long as Washington's goals, particularly opening access to US investment in Venezuela's enormous crude oil reserves, are met.

Asked whether the operation was about oil or regime change, Trump replied: "It's about peace on earth."

- 'It's a broken country' -

The US president said elections in Venezuela would have to wait. "We're going to run it, fix it, we'll have elections at the right time, but the main thing you have to fix is it's a broken country," he said.

As he struck his triumphant tone, Trump also had harsh words for other US adversaries, saying Colombia's leader was "not going to be doing it very long," Communist-ruled Cuba was "ready to fall" and that Iran's leadership will be "hit hard" if protesters are killed.

Trump had earlier threatened that Rodriguez would pay a "big price" if she does not cooperate with the United States.

Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in an Instagram post Sunday from exile in Spain, said Maduro's capture was "an important step, but not enough" to return the crisis-hit nation to normal.

Gonzalez Urrutia called for the results of the 2024 election -- which he claims to have won -- to be upheld and for all political prisoners to be freed to ensure a "democratic transition."

Venezuelans braced for the political aftermath of the stunning raid, in which US commandos swooped in on helicopters, backed by fighter jets and naval forces, to capture Maduro.

Residents queued up to buy food in grocery stores, and the masked and heavily armed police visible the previous day were gone, AFP correspondents said.

Some 2,000 Maduro supporters -- including rifle-wielding men on motorcycles -- rallied Sunday in Caracas, however, with crowds shouting and waving red, blue and yellow Venezuelan flags.

The Venezuelan military announced it recognized Rodriguez -- previously Maduro's vice president -- as acting president, and urged calm.

Venezuelan hospitals have refused to divulge the number of people killed or injured in the attacks.

A doctors' group told AFP around 70 people were killed and 90 injured. A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the death toll at at least 15.

But Havana said 32 Cubans died in the US raid. Trump said "a lot" of Maduro's Cuban security detail were killed.

- Who will run Venezuela? -

Despite the success of the initial US operation, questions mounted over Trump's Venezuela strategy.

Trump said Saturday the United States will "run" the South American country of about 30 million people.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed Sunday that Washington is not seeking complete regime change or elections.

The United States is fighting drug traffickers, "not a war against Venezuela," Rubio told NBC's "Meet the Press."

However, he said a large US naval presence would remain in the Caribbean to enforce a blockade of Venezuelan oil exports for "tremendous leverage."

With questions swirling on Capitol Hill, an administration official told AFP that Rubio will discuss Venezuela in meetings with lawmakers Monday.

Trump has made clear Washington intends to call the shots in Venezuela, with a focus on securing access to the world's largest proven oil reserves.

Maduro, a self-described socialist, led Venezuela with an iron fist for more than a decade through a series of elections widely considered rigged. He came to power after the death of his charismatic mentor, Hugo Chavez.

As news of Maduro's capture rippled out, exiled Venezuelans waved flags and celebrated in plazas from Madrid to Santiago.

About eight million Venezuelans have fled the grinding poverty and political suppression of their homeland.

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M.Fierro--IM