As promised, here are the key points from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has spoken to US media outlets this morning.
- This is “not a war against Venezuela”, he says - this follows strikes on the country on Saturday and the extraction of its president, Nicolás Maduro
- The US will judge Venezuela by “what they do” next, Rubio says, adding that Washington will keep “multiple levers of leverage” to protect its interests
- Speaking to ABC, Rubio says congressional authorisation wasn’t needed before the operation “because this wasn’t an invasion”
- He says that he hopes Maduro’s removal will lead to “a better Venezuela”, but adds that the “number one objective is America”
- Asked whether he thinks Interim President Delcy Rodríguez is now the legitimate president of Venezuela, he says the US does not believe the regime is legitimate
It’s regime change. Again. We’ve engaged in regime change many, many times in South and Central America (as well as other parts of the world) over the years, through various methods. This is, once again, the US asserting what it believes to be its “right” to rule over all of the Americas.