Sunday on CNN’s “State 0f the Union,” Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said the United States could not count on Venezuela acting president Delcy Rodríguez to be friendly “until she proves it.”
Host Dana Bash said, “You mentioned that that you hope that the former vice president, Maduro’s vice president. It does say Rodriguez is somebody who will work with the United States. She also has been a part of his inner circle. She also happens to be the oil minister in Venezuela. So is that part of what’s going on here that the administration is trying to install somebody who will be friendly to the United States with regard to oil?”
Cotton said, “Well, I don’t think that we can count on Desi Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it. There are examples, recent examples of anti-American leaders around the world turning over a new leaf. You had more Gadhafi in Libya in 2003. You had Ahmed Al Shah, the current leader of Syria, but they made concrete concessions that benefited the United States when they had a long history of turning a new page and moving in our direction. Rodriguez and other sanctioned, and indicted ministers in Venezuela were in league with Maduro until yesterday. So I don’t think we can count on them to be pro-American at all. I hope they turn turn over a new page. I hope they begin to meet our demands. And it is the case that Venezuela still owes many billions of dollars in legal judgments to American oil companies.”
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