Donald Trump warns US could take action against more countries

Protests erupted on the streets of Caracas as Donald Trump widened his threats beyond Venezuela, warning Colombia and its president, declaring Cuba “ready to fall,” and once again floating the idea of US control over Greenland.

The US President has been facing questions about his plans for Venezuela since a US raid in Caracas captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to New York City to face Federal drug trafficking and weapons charges early Tuesday (AEDST). As Mr Trump took questions about that Sunday (local time), he spoke of other countries in Latin America and beyond.

On Air Force One, Trump told reporters that Colombia was being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”

“He’s not going to be doing it for very long,” he said of Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, who has frequently criticised Trump. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories.”

Mr Trump and Mr Petro have been locked in an escalating dispute over the US’s series of boat strikes in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, which have ratcheted up pressure on Colombia, a nexus of the region’s drug trade.

Asked whether his administration would carry out an operation targeting Colombia, Mr Trump replied, “It sounds good to me.”

Mr Petro immediately rebuffed the accusations saying his “name does not appear in court records.”

“Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump,” Mr Petro posted on X.

“That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people of Colombia’s fight for Peace.”

“Friends do not bomb.”

Mr Trump also suggested the US could take action against a number of other countries, including Mexico and Iran, over a range of issues.

He said that drugs were “pouring” through Mexico and “we’re gonna have to do something,” adding that the cartels there were “very strong.”

In Iran, which is being roiled by protests, Mr Trump said, “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”

Mr Trump suggested that military intervention was unnecessary in Cuba, a key ally of Venezuela, because it was “ready to fall.”

“I don’t think we need any action,” Mr Trump said. “It looks like it’s going down.”

“I don’t know if they’re going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income,” he added. “They got all their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had suggested earlier in the day that Cuba could face US military action.

On on NBC early Sunday, when asked whether Cuba was the Trump administration’s “next target,” Mr Rubio said: “The Cuban Government is a huge problem.” Pressed again, he said, “They are in a lot of trouble, yes.”

Mr Rubio had accused the Cuban leadership of “propping up” Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government and sponsoring his internal security apparatus, including his personal bodyguards. Mr Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has said for decades that the leadership of Cuba must be removed, and that toppling the Maduro government would help lead to a transformation in Cuba.

On Air Force One, Mr Trump also reiterated his desire to take control of Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory that he has said the US must acquire for security purposes.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it” he said, describing the region as “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

“We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months ... let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”

Hours later, former aide Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colours of the US flag, captioning it “SOON”.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called Miller’s post “disrespectful”.

“Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law -- not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” he wrote on X.

CARACAS LEADERSHIP

Mr Trump insisted the US “in charge” of Venezuela but was also dealing with the new leadership in Caracas.

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

“We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” she wrote.

“Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s position, and it is the position of all of Venezuela at this moment. That is the Venezuela I believe in, the Venezuela to which I have dedicated my life. My dream is for Venezuela to be a great power where all good Venezuelans can come together.”

Mr Trump 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.

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 Mr 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 2000 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 recognised Ms 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. Havana said 32 Cubans died in the US raid.

Mr 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.

with AFP