Venezuela like Iraq? Donald Trump explains his strategy

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he decided to cooperate with representatives of the regime in Caracas rather than hand over power to the Venezuelan opposition because he had learned lessons from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. However, he assured that he was very impressed by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Trump thus answered the question why he chose cooperation in Venezuela with Nicolas Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodriguez, instead of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who enjoys the support of Venezuelans.

– Well, if you remember a place called Iraq, where everyone was fired: the police, the generals, everyone was fired, and that's where ISIS (terrorist organization Islamic State – PAP) was created. Instead of simply doing business with them, they became ISIS. So I remember that, Trump explained.

However, referring to his Thursday meeting with Machado, he emphasized that he had great respect for her. He emphasized that she also respects him very much because she gave him her Nobel Peace Prize.

– But let me tell you: I had never met her before and I was very, very impressed. “She's a very wonderful woman,” Trump said. He said he would talk to Machado in the future.

When asked why he accepted the Nobel Prize from Machado that did not belong to him, Trump replied that it was a nice gesture.

– She said: “You ended eight wars and no one in history deserves this award more than you,” the US president reported.

Despite Trump's praise for Machado, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodriguez, on Friday in Caracasas part of the first visit by a senior Washington envoy since the capture of the Venezuelan president by US forces. According to Trump administration officials, it was intended as a “gesture of support for the type of stability Ms. Rodriguez offers, as well as a sign of building trust and cooperation between the two governments.”

Still, Machado argued Friday during a news conference in Washington that Trump supports Venezuela's transition to democracy – and that while the process leading to it is complicated, it is “irreversible.”

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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