Gustavo Petro leftist president of Colombia said CBS News announced on Thursday that Venezuela would “implode” if the United States takes care of the South American nation for years, as President Trump recently suggested.
Petro’s remarks came in response to Mr Trump note to the New York Times He said he expected US supervision of Venezuela to last “much longer” than a year.
“If that happens, Venezuelan society will implode,” Petro said.
“And there is a decisive point, not so much about Venezuela, but about the idea that the United States of America has the right not only over the resources of Latin America, but also over the world,” added Petro.
The Trump administration has said the United States plans to take control of the sale of Venezuelan oil and is encouraging American companies to invest billions in rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. It’s Mr. Trump meeting with oil officials at the White House on Friday to discuss the matter.
Petro and Mr. Trump he spoke for the first time Wednesday, after US leaders threatened military action against Colombia as part of a crackdown on the flow of narcotics into the country. The call appeared to escalate tensions between the two leaders, and Mr Trump invited Petro to the White House.
Petro criticized Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who Mr Trump said he plans to meet with next week. Asked whether he would trust him as Venezuela’s leader or support him, Petro said: “I invited him once, and he didn’t want to come. Of course, I was surprised that Trump thought the same thing as me.”
After the US captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Mr Trump said he did not believe Machado had enough support in his country to be a viable leader. Instead, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy RodriguezHe has been sworn in as interim president.
But among the opposition, Machado led the polls by 93% last year in an election in which Maduro claimed a decisive victory that the US and Machado say was stolen. While the Maduro regime prevented Machado from running, the candidate he backed won 70% of the vote, according to the US and many outside observers.