On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump shared a map of Venezuela labelled “51st State” and overlaid with an American flag on his Truth Social platform.
Trump made the provocative post while travelling to China for a high-stakes summit, just a day after Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the country had “never” considered becoming the 51st U.S. state, even after American forces captured former leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
After months of claiming he ruled the oil-rich nation, Trump told Fox News earlier on Monday that he was considering creating a new state from the South American country.
Since assuming power, Rodriguez has supervised a softening of ties with the US by enacting measures that reopened Venezuela’s mining and oil industries to foreign businesses, particularly those from the US.
The Venezuelan opposition has demanded elections, while Rodriguez — when asked on May 1 about the prospects of a new vote — said she “didn’t know” and that it would happen “sometime.”
BACKSTORY…
Recall that U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York on Saturday, after which Donald Trump said the United States would effectively run Venezuela.
Following a lightning-fast predawn raid in which troop apprehended Maduro and his wife while airstrikes blasted locations in and around Caracas, the US president made his declaration.
Following this, President Trump described himself as the “Acting President of Venezuela,” igniting fresh round of controversy about his true intention for the oil-rich country.
The US president made this declaration on his Truth social media platform.
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