Trump says that US is ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after capture of Maduro

Donald Trump insisted on Sunday night that the U.S. is “in charge” of Venezuela after American military forces toppled Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One that his administration was “dealing with the people that just got sworn in,” seemingly referring to acting president Delcy Rodriguez.

“Don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial,” Trump said as he flew from Florida back to Washington, D.C.

When asked what he meant, Trump replied: “It means we’re in charge. We’re in charge.”

Trump said that although he had not yet spoken to the country’s acting president, he would do so “at the right time.”

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He also claimed that Rodriguez was “cooperating” with the White House after the extraction of Maduro, who is set to appear in a New York court on Monday.

“Venezuela right now is a dead country. We have to bring it back, and we’re gonna have to have big investments by the oil companies to bring back the infrastructure ready to go,” Trump added.

The president also said that Rodriguez needed to give the U.S. “total access” to the country.

“We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country,” Trump said.

He told reporters that Rodriguez would face a situation probably worse than Maduro” if she did not cooperate, but did not elaborate on what that would look like.

Trump also claimed that Maduro had sent “every single drug addict” from Venezuela to the U.S.

“Think of that every single drug addict from Maduro’s country, which isn’t really his country, and it’s certainly not his country anymore,” he said.

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“Every drug addict and every drug dealer has been sent into our country. Now we’re getting them back.”

Trump also turned his attention to Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and gave its president, Gustavo Petro, a warning, claiming the country was “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,” Trump told reporters.

“He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it.” Asked whether the U.S. would conduct an operation against Colombia, he said, “It sounds good to me.”