Venezuela will continue defending its independence, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “seriously considering” making the country the 51st U.S. state.
“We just heard statements of Donald Trump saying that he will consider to make Venezuela the 51st state,” Rodriguez said in The Hague.
She was there for a final hearing on a decades-long dispute between her country and Guyana over the resource-rich Essequibo region.
"That would never have been considered, because if there is one thing we Venezuelan men and women have, it is that we love our independence process, we love our heroes and heroines of independence," Rodriguez said.
Since the U.S. captured Maduro on January 3, Trump has boasted of controlling the oil-rich Caribbean country, and reportedly told Fox News he was "seriously" considering making Venezuela the 51st state.
In a post on his Truth Social network in March, the US leader wrote: "Good things are happening to Venezuela lately! I wonder what this magic is all about? STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?"
Asked about the prospect of US statehood, Rodriguez insisted her government was working with "a diplomatic cooperation agenda" with the U.S.
