Trump on Venezuela: "There won't be elections in the coming days"
In an interview with NBC, the American president said that the US would be involved in the reconstruction of the country, particularly in the oil industry, in cooperation with American companies
US President Donald Trump said overnight Monday into Tuesday in an interview with NBC that Venezuela will not hold new elections in the next 30 days, and that he foresees long-term US involvement in the South American country. He also said in the interview that "the country needs to be fixed first, it's impossible to hold elections—there is no chance that the people could even vote."
Regarding the rehabilitation of the country's oil industry, President Trump said that the United States might subsidize the efforts of oil companies to rebuild the country's energy infrastructure—a project he said could take less than 18 months. "A huge amount of money will need to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they will be reimbursed by us or through revenues," he said.
While Nicolás Maduro is in custody awaiting his trial in the United States, the American intelligence agency (CIA) estimates that senior officials in Maduro’s regime—including the dictator’s deputy and acting president, Delcy Rodríguez—would be in the best position to lead a temporary government in Venezuela to maintain stability in the short term, in the event that Maduro loses power.
Trump also insisted that his country is not at war with Venezuela: "We are at war with people who sell drugs, who are emptying their prisons, their psychiatric institutions, and their drug addicts into our country."
However, there are those in Venezuela who disagree with the CIA's position. In an interview she gave to the American Fox News network from her hiding place, the exiled opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maria Machado, said that like Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez is "the chief architect of corruption, torture, and drug production. She is a key ally and contact person with Russia, China, and Iran — definitely not someone international investors can trust, and she has rejected the people of Venezuela."
Machado said in an interview that she has not spoken with US President Donald Trump since October, and that she plans to return to Venezuela. Meanwhile, overnight Monday into Tuesday, sounds of gunfire and anti-aircraft missile explosions were heard throughout Venezuela, mainly in the capital city of Caracas.