4 minute read
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said she has extended an invitation to the United States government to collaborate on an “agenda of cooperation," CNN reported.
The agenda, she said in a statement on social media, would be aimed at “shared development, within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
Rodríguez, who has taken over as interim leader, said Venezuela will “prioritize” moving toward “balanced and respectful international relations” with the U.S. and the region.
“President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s message, and it is a message of all Venezuela right now,” Rodríguez said in comments made directly to the U.S. president.
“Venezuela has the right to peace, to development, to sovereignty and to a future,” she added.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of Venezuela by U.S. special forces after the U.S. carried out large-scale strikes. Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges.
Maduro has been accused by U.S. authorities of leading a drug cartel and smuggling narcotics into the United States.
Top officials in Maduro's government are still in charge and have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping. U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said that the U.S. would temporarily “run” Venezuela.
Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on state television the U.S. attack killed soldiers, civilians and a "large part" of Maduro's security detail "in cold blood,” according to Reuters. The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed in Venezuela during the raid.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela's top court and has said Maduro remains president, Reuters reported.
Trump's administration has described Maduro's capture as a law-enforcement mission to force him to face U.S. criminal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied criminal involvement.
But Trump also said U.S. oil companies need "total access" to the country's vast reserves and suggested that an influx of Venezuelan emigrating to the United States also factored into the decision to capture Maduro.
"What really played (into the decision to capture Maduro) is the fact that he sent millions of people into our country from prisons and from mental institutions, drug dealers, every drug addict in his country was sent into our country," Trump said, according to Reuters.
The Venezuelan government has said for months Trump was seeking to take the country's natural resources, Reuters reported.