Rodriguez Invites Trump to Co 01/05 06:31

   Interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodrguez invited U.S. President Donald Trump 
"to collaborate" and said she seeks "respectful relations" in a newly 
conciliatory message released Sunday night.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodrguez invited U.S. 
President Donald Trump "to collaborate" and said she seeks "respectful 
relations" in a newly conciliatory message released Sunday night.

   After delivering speeches projecting fierce defiance to the Trump 
administration this weekend, Rodriguez's statement in English on her Instagram 
account marked a dramatic shift in tone.

   "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," she wrote.

   Her message comes shortly after Trump threatened that she could "pay a very 
big price" if she didn't fall in line with U.S. demands.

   THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the 
United States would not govern Venezuela day-to-day other than enforcing an 
existing "oil quarantine" on the country, a turnaround after President Donald 
Trump has insisted that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its 
ouster of leader Nicols Maduro.

   Rubio's statements seemed designed to temper concerns that the assertive 
action to achieve regime change in Venezuela might lead the U.S. into another 
prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building.

   They stood in contrast to Trump's broad but vague claims that the U.S. would 
at least temporarily "run" the oil-rich nation, comments that suggested some 
sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by 
Washington.

   Rubio offered a more nuanced take, saying the U.S. would continue to enforce 
an oil quarantine that was already in place on sanctioned tankers before Maduro 
was removed from power early Saturday and use that leverage as a means to press 
policy changes in Venezuela.

   "And so that's the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says 
that," Rubio said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We continue with that quarantine, 
and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil 
industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the 
drug trafficking."

   The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers -- some of which have been seized by 
the U.S. -- "remains in place, and that's a tremendous amount of leverage that 
will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the 
national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead 
to a better future for the people of Venezuela," he added.

   Leaders in Venezuela have so far pushed back, calling on the Trump 
administration to release Maduro.

   Even before the operation that nabbed Maduro, experts questioned the 
legality of aspects of the Trump administration's pressure campaign on Maduro, 
including the deadly bombing of boats accused of trafficking drugs that some 
scholars said stretched the boundaries of international law.

   Cuba on Sunday night announced that 32 Cuban security officers were killed 
in the U.S. operation in Venezuela, which Trump acknowledged: "You know, a lot 
of Cubans were killed yesterday."

   "There was a lot of death on the other side," Trump said aboard Air Force 
One as he flew back to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "No 
death on our side."

   Trump still says US will 'run' Venezuela

   The president's vow, repeated more than half a dozen times at a Florida news 
conference on Saturday, sparked concerns among some Democrats. It also drew 
unease from parts of his own Republican coalition, including an "America First" 
base that is opposed to foreign interventions, and from observers who recalled 
past nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

   Rubio dismissed such criticism, saying Trump's intent had been misunderstood.

   "The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything 
is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan," Rubio said. "This is not the Middle East. 
And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere."

   He also suggested the U.S. would give Maduro's subordinates now in charge 
time to govern, saying, "We're going to judge everything by what they do." 
Though he did not rule out boots on the ground in Venezuela, Rubio said the 
U.S., which has built up its presence in the region, was already capable of 
stopping alleged drug boats and sanctioned tankers.

   A day earlier, Trump had told reporters, "We're going to run the country 
until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." He later 
pointed to his national security team with him, including Rubio and Defense 
Secretary Pete Hegseth, and said it would be done for a period of time by "the 
people that are standing right behind me. We're gonna be running it, we're 
gonna be bringing it back."

   Despite Rubio's seeking to tamp down that notion, Trump reiterated Sunday 
that the U.S. would control Venezuela, saying, "We're going to run everything."

   "We're going to run it, fix it," he said Sunday. He added, "We'll have 
elections at the right time" but didn't say when that might be.