From “technocracy.news”
After the stunning military raid to extract Nicolas Maduro from Caracas, the issue of Greenland instantly resurfaced on Sunday morning. Trump has not forgotten about Greenland and has doubled down on his pledge to get it somehow away from Denmark. Military force hasn’t been ruled out. In terms of Technocracy’s original map of the North American Technate, note the northern and southern extremities. Columbia and Mexico are already being threatened with military action. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.
The President says US needs Danish territory ‘for defence’ from China and Russia
Donald Trump has set his sights on a US takeover of Greenland after capturing Nicolas Maduro and saying he would run Venezuela.
“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” the US president told The Atlantic magazine, adding that the Danish territory was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships”.
He said officials in his administration would decide what happened to Greenland, which Mr Trump has claimed the US must annex for its security.
“We need it for defence,” he said of Greenland.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, urged Mr Trump to “stop the threats”, adding that Greenland is “not for sale”.
“The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom,” she said, pointing out that Denmark already has a defence agreement with America, which gives it access to Greenland, and that Copenhagen had boosted its investment in the Arctic region’s security.
“I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale,” she added.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the prime minister of Greenland, earlier on Sunday rebuked the Trump administration, calling it “disrespectful” and saying that the territory was “not for sale”.
He was referring to an image posted on social media by Katie Miller, the wife of Mr Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, showing the map of Greenland painted with the US flag and captioned “SOON”.
Ulf Kirtsersson, the prime minister of Sweden, said on X: “It’s only Denmark and Greenland that have the right to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland. Sweden fully stands up for our neighbouring country.”
The mission to capture Mr Maduro has triggered concerns about further US military operations in the Western hemisphere, which the Trump administration views as part of America’s sphere of influence.
A US invasion of Greenland is deemed unlikely by analysts who point out that the Danish territory is a part of the Nato alliance along with the United States.
However, the renewed threats are likely to alarm European leaders as the American split with the continent grows.
The US will be keeping a close eye on Delcy Rodríguez, Mr Maduro’s vice-president, who was sworn in as interim president by the country’s supreme court on Sunday.
Mr Trump warned that she would pay a “big price” if she failed to cooperate with the US.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” he told The Atlantic.
He said on Saturday that Ms Rodríguez was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again”. Ms Rodríguez has rejected suggestions that she will follow US orders.
Mr Trump on Sunday evening insisted the US was “in charge” of Venezuela.
“We’re dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer and it’ll be very controversial,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Pressed on what he meant, the US president said: “It means we’re in charge.”
Mr Trump warned the US could launch a second military strike on Venezuela, if remaining members of the administration did not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”.
He also raised the possibility of further military interventions in Latin America, suggesting Colombia and Mexico could face military action if they did not reduce the flow of illicit drugs into the US.
“Operation Colombia sounds good to me,” Mr Trump said. He also said that Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela, “looks like it’s ready to fall” on its own without US military action.
Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are expected to appear in a Manhattan court on Monday, charged with narco-terrorism and possession of machine guns.
A 25-page indictment accuses the pair of kidnap, beatings and murder to sustain a drug-trafficking operation run by cartels using fake passports allegedly dished out by the president.
Ms Flores was pictured on Sunday night for the first time since the raid. She can be seen in a green hoodie and white trousers being escorted by an American police officer.
Officials in the US revealed on Sunday that a cyber attack on Venezuela allowed helicopters to fly in and capture Mr Maduro.
At least 80 people, including civilians and security personnel, were killed in accompanying air strikes, a senior Venezuelan official told The New York Times.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, defended the mission. “I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing? Great powers don’t act like that,” he said.
Washington has said it launched the operation to topple Mr Maduro to stop drug-trafficking into the US and to get access to its vast oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Trump ‘enraged by mocking video’
Mr Trump was reportedly moved to order the daring ambush after being enraged by a video of Mr Maduro dancing to an electronic remix of his own speech, “No War, Yes Peace,” on Dec 30.
The US president thought the Venezuelan leader was “mocking” him and calling his bluff, a week after the US struck a dock that Mr Trump claimed was used to house drug-trafficking boats.
The US ruled out immediate elections in Venezuela on Sunday. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said talk of a vote was “premature”, adding that America would run Venezuelan policy through the parts of the regime still in power.
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the Venezuelan opposition leader who is recognised by the US and Britain as the winner of an election against Mr Maduro in 2024, said the removal of his rival was “an important step, but not enough” to return the country to normal. He called for the election results to be respected and all political prisoners to be released.
“Let’s be realistic here,” he told NBC on Sunday when asked about elections. “What we are focused on right now is all of the problems we had when Maduro was there – we still have those problems in terms of them needing to be addressed.”
Armed members of a pro-government militia were seen on Saturday stopping civilians in parts of the city that remain loyal to the toppled leader.
Elsewhere, crowds gathered in subway stations looking for charging stations after power cuts were reported in parts of the city.
Mr Rubio said on Sunday that the US wanted to give Ms Rodríguez “an opportunity to address the challenges” in Venezuela as a transitional government taking instructions from Washington, DC.
Mr Rubio has been nicknamed “viceroy of Venezuela” after Mr Trump appointed him and others to “run” the country on Saturday. He is said to have played a central role in guiding the Trump administration towards toppling Mr Maduro’s regime.
Reports emerged on Sunday suggesting the ousting of Mr Maduro was an inside job. Former Colombian officials said they were “absolutely certain” that Ms Rodríguez betrayed Mr Maduro.
One US official said of Ms Rodríguez that “she’s certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level” than Mr Maduro. The official told the New York Times that Washington had been impressed by Ms Rodríguez’s ability to manage Venezuela’s oil industry.
Ms Rodríguez had presented the US with a plan for her to run Venezuela without Mr Maduro, according to the Miami Herald. It is not clear if she co-operated with the US to help capture the former president.
Pressure mounted on Sir Keir Starmer from the Left wing of Labour on Sunday to condemn the US actions in Venezuela and “stand up to Trump’s gangster politics”.
On Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and close ally of Vladimir Putin, said the attacks on Venezuela were unlawful but consistent because Mr Trump was defending US interests.
“It must be acknowledged that, despite the obvious unlawfulness of Trump’s behaviour, one cannot deny a certain consistency in his actions. He and his team defend their country’s national interests quite harshly,” he told state news.
Oil markets were braced for possible volatility in global markets when trading resumed across most of the world on Monday morning.
The stock market in Saudi Arabia, which relies on high oil prices to sustain its economy, fell by the most in nine months on Sunday. The Tadawul All Share Index dropped 1.8 per cent, the biggest decline since Mr Trump’s tariffs destabilised global markets in April.
Meanwhile, oil companies were preparing to return to Venezuela to begin extracting crude, a key pledge made by Mr Trump in the aftermath of the raid on Caracas.
Mr Rubio said that the US did not need Venezuelan oil, but there would be “no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries”.
“Why does China need Venezuelan oil? Why does Russia? Why does Iran?” he said. A US blockade is currently preventing exports of Venezuelan oil.
Mr Trump told reporters on Saturday that US companies would invest billions of dollars in the country’s oil fields, which are estimated to be the largest in the world.
Interim leader’s ‘ties to Moscow’
Questions have been raised over Ms Rodríguez’s ties to the Kremlin, following reports that she was in Russia at the time of Mr Maduro’s capture.
The interim leader signed dozens of co-operation agreements with Moscow in the past and in November said that Venezuela’s relationship with Moscow “cannot be destroyed”.
The US military operation has drawn condemnation from Venezuela’s allies China, North Korea and Russia – but has been cautiously welcomed in some European capitals.
Mr Maduro and his wife are being held in a Brooklyn prison with a history of bad conditions and mistreatment of inmates, which have included Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and the rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The former Venezuelan leader was last seen in a “perp walk” video in which he wished DEA officers a “good night” and a “Happy New Year” as he was escorted to jail on Saturday.
Shackled, wearing a blue hoodie and black hat pulled over his head, he was pictured smiling and holding his thumbs up alongside dozens of federal agents.