Venezuela’s acting president offered on Sunday to collaborate with the United States on an agenda focused on “shared development”, striking a conciliatory tone for the first time since US forces captured the oil-rich nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro.
In a statement posted on social media, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said her government was prioritising a move towards respectful relations with the United States, having earlier criticised the raid on Saturday as an illegal grab for the country’s national resources.
“We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodriguez said.
“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.”
Rodriguez, who also serves as oil minister, has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle, and Trump had said she was willing to work with the US.
Publicly, however, she and other officials had called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping and said Maduro remains the nation’s legitimate leader.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with US efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking.
Rodriguez’s statement came on the eve of Maduro’s scheduled appearance on Monday before a federal judge in New York.
Trump administration officials have portrayed his seizure as a law-enforcement action to hold Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 that accuse him of narco-terrorism conspiracy.
But Trump has also said other factors were at play, saying the raid was prompted in part by an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and the country’s decision to nationalise US oil interests decades ago.
“We’re taking back what they stole,” he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida. “We’re in charge.”
Oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the country’s petroleum industry, Trump said.
“They’re going to spend billions of dollars and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground,” he said.
