Washington – Day Mon a daring American military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday he renewed his calls for an American takeover of Danish territory Greenland in the interest of US security interests, while its top diplomat declared a communist government in Cuba is in “big trouble”.
Trump’s comments and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after expulsion from Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro emphasizes that the US administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.
With thinly veiled threats, Trump rattles his hemispheric friends and foes alike, prompting a stark question around the world: Who’s next?
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered everywhere with Russian and Chinese ships,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland for national security, and Denmark won’t make it.”
Asked during an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday what U.S. military action in Venezuela could lead to in Greenland, Trump said: “They’ll have to see for themselves. I really don’t know.”
Trump in his administration National Security Strategy released last month, set the restoration of “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central signpost for his second run at the White House.
Trump also pointed to The 19th century Monroe Doctrinewhich rejects European colonialism as well as The Roosevelt Corollary — the rationale invoked by the US in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the US — as he pushed for an assertive approach to America’s neighbors and beyond.
Trump even joked that some now refer to the foundational document of the fifth US president as the “Don-Roe Doctrine”.
Saturday night’s operation by US forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday raised concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral island of Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already gives the United States, a NATO member, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
“That’s why I would strongly urge the US to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.
Denmark also signed a European Union statement on Sunday stressing that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump vowed to “manage” Venezuela and urged the incumbent president, Delcy Rodriguez to get online.
Social media posts anger Danes
Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts to bolster Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes had added “another dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
Greenlanders and Danes were further criticized by a post on social media following the raid by former Trump administration official turned podcaster Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in stars and stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON”.
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s top envoy to Washington, said in a post in response to Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
During his presidential transition and in the first months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for US jurisdiction over Greenland, sharply does not exclude military force take control of a strategically located, mineral-rich Arctic island belonging to the Allies.
The topic has largely disappeared from the headlines in recent months. Then, less than two weeks ago, Trump refocused attention on Greenland when he said he would nominate the Republicans Govt. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.
The Louisiana governor said he would help Trump “make Greenland part of the US” in his volunteer position.
Strong warning for Cuba
Meanwhile, in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, there was concern as Rubio issued a new severe warning the Cuban government. Relations between the US and Cuba have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubio said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela before his capture.
“It was the Cubans who followed Maduro,” Rubio said. “He wasn’t guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The foreign minister added that Cuban bodyguards are also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who is spying on whom inside to make sure there are no traitors.”
Trump said “many” Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government made the announcement in a statement read on state television Sunday night 32 officers were killed in an American military operation.
Trump also said the Cuban economy, battered by years of the US embargo, was in shambles and would plunge further after the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island with subsidized oil.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s counting down.
Cuban authorities called a rally in support of the Venezuelan government and criticized the US military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert because the threat hangs over us all.”
Rubio, a former Florida senator and the son of Cuban immigrants, has long argued that Cuba is a dictatorship oppressing its people.
“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we will not allow the Western Hemisphere to become a base of operations for the adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States,” Rubio said.
Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez followed developments in Venezuela. She said she feared what she described as “aggression against a sovereign state”.
“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We’ve always been in the spotlight,” Rodríguez said.
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