US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country is ready to work with Venezuela’s remaining leaders if they make the “right decision.”
“If they don’t make the right decision, the United States will retain multiple levers of influence,” Rubio told CBS.
He added that this is not a war against Venezuela.
“We are at war with drug trafficking organizations,” Rubio said.
The US secretary of state said the United States does not need Venezuelan oil.
“We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we will not allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States,” Rubio said.
He stressed the need to prevent global rivals from accessing Venezuela’s resources.
“We will not allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States. We want to see that the oil revenues of that country benefit the people of Venezuela,” Rubio said.
The statement came a day after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was arrested in a raid by US forces and taken to the US for detention in New York.
