06/01/2026

TUESDAY | JAN 6, 2026

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Venezuela’s interim president offers to cooperate

BOGOTA: Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on Sunday rejected threats by his US counterpart Donald Trump who also accused him of being a drug trafficker. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday Trump said Colombia is “very sick too” and “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long,”Trump said. When asked whether military intervention similar to Venezuela was on the cards for Colombia, the Republican leader said: “It sounds good to me.” “You know why because they kill a lot of people,” Trump claimed without evidence. Petro rebuffed the accusations saying his “name does not appear in court records”. “Stop slandering me, Mr Trump,” Petro said on X. “That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people of Colombia’s fight for Peace.” Petro has harshly criticised the Trump administration’s military action and accused Washington of abducting Maduro “without legal basis”. In a later post to X on Sunday Petro added “friends do not bomb”. Colombia’s Foreign Ministry called the US president’s threats “unacceptable interference” and demanded “respect”. Colombia and the United States are key military and economic allies in the region, but their relations have been strained. Since the start of Trump’s second term, the two leaders have regularly clashed over issues. – AFP Colombian president rejects US threats Oil tankers break blockade LONDON: About a dozen tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude and fuel departed in recent days from the country’s waters in dark mode, seemingly breaking a strict blockade imposed by the US amid intense pressure that mounted until the capture of deposed President Nicolas Maduro, monitoring service TankerTrackers.com said. All the identified departed vessels are under US sanctions. A separate group of ships, also under sanctions, left the country in recent days empty after discharging imports or completing domestic transport trips. The departures could be a relief for Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA, which had accumulated a very large inventory of floating storage amid the US blockade, begun last month, dragging the country’s oil exports to a standstill. At least four of the departed tankers left Venezuelan waters through a route north of Margarita Island after briefly stopping near the country’s maritime border, TankerTrackers.com said, after identifying the vessels in satellite images. A source with knowledge of the departures’ paperwork said at least four supertankers had been cleared by Venezuelan authorities in recent days to leave Venezuelan waters in dark mode. It was not immediately clear if the departures happened in defiance of the US measures. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that an “oil embargo” on Venezuela was in full force, but added that under an incoming transition Venezuela’s largest customers, including China, would keep receiving oil. – Reuters

stole,” he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida. “We’re in charge.” Oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the country’s petroleum industry, Trump said. “They’re going to spend billions of dollars and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground.” Maduro, 63, faces charges that accuse him of providing support to major drug trafficking groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel.

Trump administration officials have portrayed his seizure as a law enforcement action to hold Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 that accuse him of narco-terrorism conspiracy. But Trump has also said other factors were at play, saying the raid was prompted in part by an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and the country’s decision to nationalise US oil interests decades ago. “We’re taking back what they

Prosecutors say he directed cocaine trafficking routes, used the military to protect shipments, sheltered violent trafficking groups and used presidential facilities to move drugs. The charges, first filed in 2020, were updated on Saturday to include his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also captured by US forces and who is accused of ordering kidnappings and murders. Maduro has denied wrongdoing, and it could be several months before he stands trial. – Reuters

WASHINGTON: Venezuela’s acting president offered on Sunday to collaborate with the United States on an agenda focused on “shared development”, striking a conciliatory tone for the first time since US forces captured the oil-rich nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro. In a statement posted on social media, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said her government was prioritising a move towards respectful relations with the United States, having earlier criticised the raid on Saturday as an illegal grab for the country’s national resources. “We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodriguez said. “President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.” Rodriguez, who also serves as oil minister, has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle and Trump had said she was willing to work with the US. Publicly, however, she and other officials had called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping and said Maduro remains the nation’s legitimate leader. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with US efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking. Rodriguez’s statement came on the eve of Maduro’s scheduled appearance before a federal judge in New York. o Maduro faces narco-terrorism conspiracy charges COPENHAGEN: US President Donald Trump’s calls that Greenland should become part of the United States was met with condemnation yesterday as the autonomous Danish territory’s prime minister warned, “That’s enough now.” Washington’s intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the Arctic. While aboard Air Force One en HAVANA: A total of 32 Cuban nationals were killed during the US attack on Caracas that culminated in the capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, the government in Havana said on Sunday. “As a result of the criminal attack carried out by the government of the

A Puerto Rican woman expressing her grief in San Juan on Sunday. – REUTERSPIC

That’s enough, Greenland PM tells Trump

route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he told reporters. “We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months ... let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.” The territory’s prime minister issued a clear warning: “That’s enough now.” “No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of United States” against Venezeula, “32 Cubans lost their lives in combat operations,” the Cuban government said in a statement read on national television. The deceased were members of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces or the Ministry of the Interior who

annexation,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Facebook. “We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.” Expressing its “solidarity” with Denmark, France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told television channel TF1 that “borders cannot be changed by force”. Trump rattled European leaders by attacking Caracas and grabbing were carrying out missions “at the request of counterpart agencies”, Cuban officials said. The official Cuban statement stressed that the soldiers had “fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell after fierce resistance in combat against

Venezuelan

president

Nicolas

Maduro. Asked in a telephone interview with The Atlantic about the implications of the Venezuela military operation for mineral-rich Greenland, Trump said it was up to others to decide. “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know,” Trump was quoted as saying. “But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.” – AFP attackers or as a result of bombings” . Havana has declared two days of national mourning. “Honour and glory to the brave Cuban fighters who fell facing terrorists in imperial uniform,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X. – AFP

32 Cubans killed in Caracas raid