‘We need total access to the oil,’ Trump says following kidnapping of Venezuela’s Maduro
A supporter holds a poster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, January 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the countryVENEZUELA’S new interim president Delcy Rodriguez must provide the United States with “total access” to its oil reserves, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday evening.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, Mr Trump was asked what his government wants from Ms Rodriguez following its kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at the weekend.
“Total access,” Mr Trump said. “We need total access to the oil and other things in their country that allow us to rebuild [it].”
Former vice-president Ms Rodriguez was officially sworn in as interim president today, while maintaining that Mr Maduro remains the legitimate president and must be released.
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Mr Trump also took aim at Colombia and President Gustavo Petro.
“Colombia’s very sick too,” he said. “Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
Asked if that might mean another attack on a peaceful Latin American country, Trump said: “Sounds good to me.”
Mr Petro took to social media today to say: “The US is the first country in the world to bomb a South American capital in all of human history.”
He called on Latin American countries to unite or risk being “treated as a servant and slave.”
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