US PRESIDENT Donald Trump, after his illegal attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of president Nicolas Maduro, immediately followed up with threats that US imperialism would annex Greenland.
Speaking to reporters, Trump reiterated: ‘We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security’.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the semi-autonomous Danish territory is vital to the US because of its strategic location and mineral wealth.
He told The Atlantic magazine that Greenland was ‘surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships’ and that officials in his administration would decide what happened to the country.
Clearly buoyed up by the capture of Maduro, Trump went on to issue threats against other Latin American countries – and beyond.
When asked whether his administration would carry out similar operations targeting Colombian president Gustavo Petro, Trump replied: ‘It sounds good to me.’
In response, Petro issued a lengthy post on X calling for Latin American countries to stand together and unite or face being ‘treated as slaves’ by US imperialism.
Mexico is also in Trump’s sights along with Cuba, a strong ally of Venezuela, whose government he insisted is ‘ready to fall.’
Earlier on Sunday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio had suggested that Cuba could soon face US military action, saying: ‘The Cuban government is a huge problem’, before adding: ‘They are in a lot of trouble.’
Meanwhile, all Trump’s boasts about the US seizing direct control of Venezuela changed.
On Saturday, Trump said the US would ‘run’ Venezuela, a country over three times the size of the UK and with a population of 30 million.
Within 24 hours this pledge to run the country had changed to threats that if Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, didn’t cooperate with his efforts to ‘fix’ the country then the US might launch further military strikes, with Trump threatening her with a fate ‘probably bigger than Maduro’.
The kidnapping of Maduro and the blatant threat to kill Rodriguez if she doesn’t submit to the demand by US capitalism for complete domination of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and vital mineral deposits, shows that these are essential to the US as it gears up for war against Russia and China.
This was made clear by Rubio who said on Sunday that while the US did not need Venezuelan oil there would be ‘no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries’.
Rubio added: ‘Why does China need Venezuelan oil? Why does Russia? Why does Iran?’
In fact, US oil companies are desperate to get their hands on all the oil in Venezuela and reap the hundreds of billions in profit Trump has promised them.
While Trump is ordering illegal military strikes against Venezuela, seizing its democratically-elected president, and issuing similar threats to countries across the world, the response from Labour prime minister Keir Starmer has been to maintain his complete support for the US president.
While Starmer and his foreign secretary Yvette Cooper insist that they uphold international law, they have both refused to condemn Trump’s actions or to say whether they believe the US has broken international law, and that it is up to the US to justify its decision to attack Venezuela.
Starmer has abandoned any pretence of upholding international law in a desperate attempt to win favour from Trump.
In kowtowing to Trump, Starmer expresses the weakness of a British capitalist system that seeks to survive by hanging on to the coat-tails of a US whose ruling class makes no secret that it regards all other countries as fit only to be exploited for the profit of American bankers and bosses.
The time has come for the working class to deal with Starmer by forcing the TUC to call a general strike to bring down his government and bring in a workers’ government and socialism.
The time has come for the working class of the world to rise up and use their power to overthrow bankrupt world capitalism with the victory of the world socialist revolution.
