Trump Warns Venezuelan Vice President: "You Will Pay a Heavy Price If You Do Not Do the Right Thing"

Trump: "Reconstruction and Regime Change Will Be Better Than Now"
Vice President Rodriguez: "Maduro Is the Only President"
80 Dead Including Security Personnel in Previous Day's Operation

On January 4 (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump issued a warning to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who has assumed interim leadership following the U.S. operation to arrest and extradite Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stating, "If she does not do the right thing, she will pay a very heavy price."

President Donald Trump is holding a press conference on the 3rd (local time) at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, USA. Photo by UPI

In a phone interview with the U.S. weekly magazine The Atlantic that morning, President Trump reiterated his warning, saying, "She may pay an even higher price than Maduro," taking a tougher stance than the previous day.

The U.S. military, during a military operation conducted from the night of January 2 to the early morning of January 3, raided President Maduro's safe house, arrested both Maduro and his wife, and extradited them to a detention facility in New York.

At the press conference, President Trump stated that Vice President Rodriguez had privately expressed her willingness to cooperate with the United States, saying, "She is essentially willing to do whatever we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again."

However, Vice President Rodriguez, while presiding over an emergency cabinet meeting afterward, declared, "Maduro is our only president," and demanded the release of President Maduro and his wife. She also refuted President Trump's remarks about "running Venezuela," stating, "Venezuela will never become a colony of any country."

In the interview, President Trump commented on Venezuela's future, saying, "Whether you call it reconstruction or regime change, it will be better than the current situation. It cannot get any worse."

When asked how the current regime change and national reconstruction in Venezuela differ from the past U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Trump responded, "I did not do Iraq. That was (George W.) Bush. You should ask Bush that question. We should never have gone into Iraq. That was the beginning of the Middle East disaster."

President Trump also suggested that Venezuela may not be the last country to face U.S. intervention. He said, "Greenland is absolutely necessary. It is needed for defense," and noted that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark and a current member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), "is surrounded by Russian and Chinese vessels."

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the majority of President Maduro's security team was killed during the U.S. military's "arrest and extradition operation." Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, in a televised address to the nation, strongly condemned the U.S. operation, stating, "This crime was committed after most of his security team, as well as soldiers and innocent civilians, were cold-bloodedly killed yesterday." However, Minister Padrino did not specify the exact number of casualties.

In relation to this, The New York Times, citing a senior Venezuelan official, reported that the number of deaths resulting from the U.S. military attack the previous day had risen to 80, including President Maduro's security personnel and civilians. President Trump stated in a media interview the previous day that there were no U.S. military casualties during the operation.