International Desk, Jan 5 (EFE).- US President Donald Trump has openly threatened renewed military action against Venezuela, also warning Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland and, describing Cuba as “ready to fall.”
He invokedUS national security, hemispheric dominance, and the Monroe Doctrine as justification for possible intervention in these countries and territories.
Trump spoke as he returned to Washington aboard Air Force One after overseeing an operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a dead-of-night operation by US forces over the weekend.
“We were prepared to do a second strike,” Trump told reporters.
Asked if another operation was ruled out, he said it was not. “If they don’t behave, we’ll do a second strike.”
He warned Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, demanding what he described as “total access” to the country’s natural and other resources.
Trump defended the operation in Venezuela by invoking the Monroe Doctrine, the 19th-century policy used to justify US intervention across the Americas.
“This is not about oil. It’s about peace on earth,” he said. “It’s our hemisphere.”
“The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it was enacted,” Trump added. “Other presidents lost sight of it. Not me.”
Trump’s remarks widened into a broader confrontation with governments across the region and beyond.
Referring to Colombia, which borders Venezuela, Trump lashed out at President Gustavo Petro, calling him “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 Petro, one of the bitter critics of Trump. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories.”
Asked whether this implied US military action, he replied: “It sounds good to me,” adding that “many people have been killed” in Colombia.
Turning to Cuba, Trump predicted the collapse of the island’s government, saying it had long survived on Venezuelan support that would now be cut off and that military intervention was unnecessary because it was “ready to fall.”
“I don’t think we need any action,” 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 said. “They got all their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil.”
Trump also renewed criticism of Mexico over drug trafficking, saying “we are gonna have to do something” to stop narcotics from entering the United States.
“Mexico has to get organized,” he said, blaming powerful cartels for the flow of drugs northward.
Trump said he has repeatedly offered to send US troops to assist Mexico, offers he noted President Claudia Sheinbaum, whom he called “a wonderful person,” has rejected on sovereignty grounds.
“She’s a little afraid of the cartels controlling Mexico,” Trump said.
The president also revived his controversial push to acquire Greenland, initially deflecting questions before insisting the autonomous Danish territory was vital to US national security.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” he said, arguing that the region was “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
He said that Denmark cannot guarantee the island’s security and mocked Denmark’s recent security measures, claiming they amounted to adding “a new dog sled.”
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland becoming part of the US, citing its strategic military location and mineral resources.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen dismissed the idea, calling it a “fantasy” and urging an end to pressure, while stressing that any dialogue must respect international law.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also rejected the threat, saying the US has no right to annex any part of the Danish kingdom, noting that Greenland is covered by Nato’s security guarantee and that a defense agreement with Washington is already in place. EFE
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