Newsletters
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected an offer to go into exile in Türkiye before U.S. forces captured him in a pre-dawn raid on Jan. 3.
"He could be in Türkiye today, but he's in New York," Graham told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. "Maduro has nobody to blame but himself. Trump gave him a way out. He chose to defy Trump and the U.S. military, and his a** is in jail where he deserves to be."
Graham added, "So if you tell people in Cuba you need to stop being a communist dictatorship threatening America, you should go somewhere else. You'd better take the offer."
"Every president has said the same thing, but he did it," Graham said, referring to Trump.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that the Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to Maduro in December, telling him to "leave office and go into a gilded exile in Türkiye."
Maduro rejected the ultimatum with anger, according to several Americans and Venezuelans involved in transition talks cited by the Times.
The Times reported that Maduro's regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff.
"So the White House decided to follow through on its military threats," the Times reported.
According to the NYT, Maduro was "back onstage" this week, "brushing off the latest U.S. escalation—a strike on a dock that the United States said was used for drug trafficking—by bouncing to an electronic beat on state television while his recorded voice repeated in English, 'No crazy war.'"
The rejection of the exile offer and his continued dancing in public in recent days was "the last straw," the Times reported.
About a month earlier, the Washington Post had reported that Türkiye was seen by U.S. officials as a "safe harbor" for Maduro.
"Türkiye is a perfect place for Maduro. He trusts Erdogan and Erdogan has good relations with Trump. These scenarios are being considered and worked on," a U.S. official told the Post.
Graham had also posted on X around the same time: "A narco-terrorist has controlled the state, poisoning America for over a decade. I hear Türkiye and Iran are very beautiful this time of year."
U.S. President Trump said that the U.S. is "in charge" of Venezuela following the military operation.
"We're dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer, and it'll be very controversial," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if he had spoken to Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who was named acting president by Venezuela's top court Saturday.
When pressed about what he meant, he responded, "We're in charge."
"We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country," Trump said when asked what he needs from Rodriguez.
He threatened that Rodriguez "will face a situation probably worse than Maduro" if she doesn't cooperate with the U.S.
Trump said major U.S. oil companies would be brought in to rebuild Venezuela's infrastructure, investing billions of dollars without U.S. government funding.
"The big oil companies are going to go in, and they're going to fix the infrastructure. They're going to invest money. We're not going to invest anything. We're going to just take care of the country," he said.
The Times also reported that U.S. officials had already settled on Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as an acceptable candidate to replace Maduro weeks before the operation.
"I've been watching her career for a long time, so I have some sense of who she is and what she's about," a senior U.S. official told the Times, referring to Rodriguez.
"I'm not claiming that she's the permanent solution to the country's problems, but she's certainly someone we think we can work with at a much more professional level than we were able to do with him," the official added.
The people involved in discussions said intermediaries persuaded the administration that Rodriguez would protect and champion future American energy investments in Venezuela.
Set as preferred source
2 min read
1 min read
