The United Nations issued a statement on Tuesday saying the U.S. “undermined a fundamental principle of international law” in deposing now-former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
On Monday night, in an interview with NBC, President Trump once again asserted that he is in charge of Venezuela. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is only directing policy in Venezuela. And now, the Trump administration says Greenland may be next.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire who is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took part in a bipartisan briefing on Venezuela Monday night.
“We got a very detailed explanation about the mission itself, about the actions of our military and intel community, which was very helpful,” Shaheen said. “But in terms of what happens next, things were a lot more vague.”
4 questions with Jeanne Shaheen
Did the lack of clarity shock you?
“It was disappointing to see that there appeared to be very little planning for what comes next and a lot of supposition about what was going to happen without any real benchmarks for what we want to see about a timeline for how we get to democratic elections and about what the real goals are in Venezuela.
“I think there’s still a lot of, not just vagueness around those goals, but contradictions around what we’re really trying to accomplish there. I think we’re better off without Maduro heading Venezuela. I think there’s general bipartisan agreement that he was a bad guy doing bad things, not just in Venezuela, but creating problems throughout the region and for the United States. But what comes next is still the question.”
What do you think about the United Nations calling the extraction a violation of international law?
“I think members of Congress care about the fact that there was no notification in violation of not just norms, but what is legally expected.
“What the removal of Maduro has done is create further instability in Venezuela as well as in the region. You just had to look at the border this morning on the news between Colombia and Venezuela, where they have beefed up the military in Colombia, and the statements that the president is making tend to undermine that, not just in Colombia, but throughout Latin America.
“The statements around annexing Greenland not only are a violation, they would destabilize NATO and violate our transatlantic alliance, but they go against a longstanding historic relationship with Denmark. They’ve been one of our critical allies, and as the Prime Minister of Denmark has said, why are we interested in taking over Greenland? They’re willing to partner with us on anything we want to do there.”
How sidelined do you feel as a member of Congress?
“It’s troubling to me that the Republican leadership in Congress has been so reluctant to cross President Trump. The fact that I can talk to so many of my colleagues who privately say, ‘We don’t agree with what the president is doing,’ but are not willing to say so publicly.”
On CNN Monday night, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said, “Nobody’s going to fight the United States” over Greenland. How seriously are you taking this?
“I’m not, I think saner heads will prevail, but Stephen Miller doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’ve seen that time and time again. And why we’re listening to him and to anybody who’s suggesting that we’re going to take Greenland makes no sense.
“You can take him seriously. I don’t intend to do that. I believe that our transatlantic alliance is more important than Stephen Miller.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Lynn Menegon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Micaela Rodríguez. Allison Hagan produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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