Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied issues the Trump administration is legitimizing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after a authorities official traveled to Caracas in late January.
Fox Information host Brian Kilmeade requested Rubio on his radio present Wednesday about U.S. envoy for particular missions Ric Grenell’s journey to the nation and his assembly with the dictator that resulted in six Individuals returning residence.
The Maduro regime additionally agreed to take again Venezuelans, together with Tren de Aragua gang members who illegally entered the US.
Rubio defined that Venezuela has an obligation underneath worldwide legislation to just accept international nationals who’re unlawfully and illegally overseas.
NEARLY 200 VENEZUELAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DETAINED AT GUANTANAMO BAY ARE FLOWN BACK HOME
“Bear in mind, Venezuela stopped taking migration flights, deportations as a result of they needed to blackmail Joe Biden. Donald Trump’s not going to be blackmailed. President Trump won’t be blackmailed by them,” he mentioned on “The Brian Kilmeade Present.”
America authorities doesn’t acknowledge Maduro as Venezuela’s official chief after a contested 2024 election noticed the longtime president obtain a 3rd, six-year time period.
President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro delivers the annual handle at Teatro Teresa Carreno on January 15, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela. ((Picture by Jesus Vargas/Getty Pictures))
Former State Division deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel mentioned final 12 months there have been “critical issues” concerning the election and the consequence “doesn’t replicate the desire and the votes of the Venezuelan folks.”
Rubio echoed Patel’s sentiments, saying he nonetheless believes Maduro is a “horrible dictator.”
“He’s permitting Iran to function out of Venezuela. He is permitting the Chinese language to function out of Venezuela. He is threatening his neighbors within the area. He has flooded us with gang members, flooded us with these Tren de Aragua gang members which might be on this nation doing horrible issues,” he mentioned.
LISTEN TO SECRETARY OF STATE RUBIO’S INTERVIEW ON ‘THE BRIAN KILMEADE SHOW’:
BIDEN URGED TO CRACK DOWN ON OIL COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS WITH VENEZUELA AFTER MADURO’S REFUSAL TO CEDE POWER
“Why would we wish somebody like that to be there? We’re not going to debate publicly what our work goes to be in that regard. However he stays the identical menace at this time that he was two years in the past, three years in the past, 4 years in the past. That is going to should be handled.”
Mugshots of suspected members of the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang seem over a blurred picture of an arrest of an alleged gang member in Denver.
President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon that the US was ending Chevron’s Venezuela oil license that was largely seen as a financial lifeline to the regime.
“We’re hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction settlement, dated November 26, 2022, and in addition having to do with Electoral circumstances inside Venezuela, which haven’t been met by the Maduro regime,” the commander-in-chief wrote.
“Moreover, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they despatched into our Nation (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) again to Venezuela on the speedy tempo that that they had agreed to.”
