President Trump issued a thinly-veiled warning to Mexico’s president Saturday while announcing the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro Saturday.
Trump, who also had strong words for the leaders of Colombia and Cuba, said the attack on Venezuela wasn’t meant to be a warning for Mexico, but said “something’s going to have to be done” about the cartel-run country.
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Trump has clashed with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo over trade tariffs, and blamed the US neighbor for allowing illegal immigration and narcotics to flow across the southern border.
Trump doubled down on his criticism of Colombia’s Gustavo Petro. AFP via Getty Images
“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman,” Trump told Fox & Friends Saturday. “But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”
Sheinbaum said Mexico “strongly condemns and rejects” US military action in Venezuela and urged the US to end “all acts of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” in a statement released Saturday.
Trump also doubled down on his warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
“He has cocaine mills, he has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement: He’s making cocaine,” Trump said of Petro.
“They’re sending it to the United States. So he does have to watch his ass,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago shortly after slamming Maduro as a “narco-terrorist.”
Here’s the latest on Nicolás Maduro’s capture:
The warning came weeks after Trump branded Petro a “troublemaker” and said he “better watch it.” Petro has been repeatedly posting criticisms online of the US operation in Venezuela.
Trump also labeled Cuba – which relies on Venezuelan oil and furnished Maduro with security guards – and its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a “failing nation.”
Trump called Cuba a “failing nation.” AFP via Getty Images
“Cuba, as you know, is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba.
The people there have suffered for many, many years, and I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now.
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“It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former Florida senator and Cuba hawk, called the communist Cuban regime a “disaster” run by “incompetent senile men.”