President Donald Trump is hinting he could take more military action in other foreign nations after the successful capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces over the weekend. But whether the U.S. has the capability of handling another intervention in a second country remains unclear.
Within two days of Maduro’s capture, the president was already threatening other Latin American nations with U.S. intervention or bragging that nations could “fall” while speaking to reporters.
“Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said Sunday aboard Air Force One about Colombian President Gustavo Petro. “And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.”
When Trump was asked in a follow-up question if the U.S. would take action in Colombia, he responded, “It sounds good to me.”
Trump said Cuba would no longer receive financial resources from Venezuela and that the nation did not need U.S. intervention because “Cuba is ready to fall.”
“They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil, they’re not getting any of it,” he continued. “You have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are going to be very happy about this.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, told NBC News’s Meet the Press that the Cuban government is “in a lot of trouble.”
MADURO ‘CAPTURED’ AND TAKEN OUT OF VENEZUELA AFTER US MILITARY OPERATION
“I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro,” Rubio also said.
The success in Venezuela has “emboldened” the Trump administration’s foreign approach with other nations, Jonathan Hanson, a political scientist at the University of Michigan who studies the role of democracy and authoritarian regimes, told the Washington Examiner.
“The talk can be itself a way to try to bring change,” Hanson said. “We say, ‘Look what we just did in Venezuela. People in Cuba and Colombia and Mexico should pay attention,’ because they could be next. It’s just sort of a threat as a way to get the Trump administration’s objectives pushed forward. But I would not be surprised if we saw military strikes against drug cartels in Mexico, or pressure on the Cuban regime, which is probably fairly fragile and depends on Venezuela for oil.”
In response to Trump’s actions in Venezuela, Latin American and Caribbean nations scheduled a last-minute meeting on Sunday to discuss their response.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez implored the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States to protect the region from U.S. aggression. “Latin America is not a disputed territory, nor does it belong to anyone other than the sovereignty of its people,” Rodriguez said, according to the Venezuela-based Telesur news.
Yet CELAC did not put out a joint statement after their Sunday meeting, likely due to different opinions among the nations on the Trump administration’s actions.
Mexico “has to get their act together,” according to Trump, who has slapped tariffs on the southern U.S. neighbor in his fight against fentanyl. He claimed that he offered U.S. troops to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.
“We’d love Mexico to do it,” he added. “They’re capable of doing it. But unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.”
Since entering office in 2025, Trump has repeatedly commented on taking over nations with close ties to the U.S., including making Canada the 51st state, to the chagrin of the U.S.’s northern neighbor, and threatening to take over the Panama Canal, due to alleged Chinese influence. The president reiterated his support for annexing Greenland, a territory of Denmark, while talking with reporters.
“I will say this about Greenland: We need Greenland from a national security situation,” he said. “It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen rejected Trump’s comments on social media, citing the nation’s NATO membership.
“Our country is not an object of superpower rhetoric,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook. “We are a people. A land. And democracy. This has to be respected. Especially by close and loyal friends.”
“Threats, pressure and talk of annexation do not belong anywhere between friends,” he continued. “That’s not how you talk to a people who have repeatedly shown responsibility, stability and loyalty. This is enough. No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation.”
Philip Brenner, a professor emeritus at American University who studies U.S.-Latin American relations, cast doubt that Trump will actually launch another intervention of a foreign nation.
“First of all, he has a big problem on his hands with Venezuela. And so the idea of taking on a second big problem is a little bit of bluff, and a little bit of a wishful thinking,” Brenner said. “It’s unlikely to happen because we don’t have the capacity to do that.”
Brenner also pointed to Colombia’s democratically elected president as another reason Trump would not have a legal reason for intervention.
“They’re due for elections very soon, there would be zero support in the international community for this,” he continued. “I think Congress would be up in arms. There’s no legal basis for him to do this, and so he would be asking for enormous problems and a loss of legitimacy for his whole agenda if he went into Colombia. And in the case of Mexico, it’s possible that he might try to bomb some of the cartel facilities, which would anger Mexico very much. The president of Mexico has said as much, and it’s unlikely to stop the flow of drugs coming from Mexico.”
China condemned the U.S. capture of Maduro and called for his release. Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the move “is in clear violation of international law, basic norms in international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”
In a statement, Russia, a key ally of Venezuela, said Maduro’s capture “causes deep concern and condemnation.” Russian Foreign Ministry officials also said in a statement that they “urge that this situation be clarified immediately.”
“Such actions, if they actually occurred, constitute an unacceptable encroachment on the sovereignty of an independent state, respect for which is a key principle of international law,” the statement reads.
However, Trump said he does not believe his actions in Venezuela will harm his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he is still scheduled to meet with the Chinese leader in April.
“I have a very good relationship,” he said. “We have the power of tariffs, and he has other powers on us.”
Yet Trump’s aggressive stance toward foreign nations is not likely to win the U.S. any international influence.
“The message to China and Russia is pretty clear,” Hanson said. “The U.S. is saying, ‘We have our sphere of influence, and we’re empowered to take actions inside that sphere of influence to remove people from power, to maybe expand our territory.’ And how else could that be interpreted by Vladimir Putin, but an endorsement of what he’s doing in Ukraine, or for China, who, of course, has long-term ambitions to bring Taiwan back into its control? The U.S. is basically saying might makes right.”
