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Puerto RicoThe governor of Russia invited the newly elected president Donald Trump to respond after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro threatened to invade US territory.
Gov. Jenniffer González-Colon called on the Trump administration to “respond quickly and make it clear to the Maduro narco-regime that the US will protect American lives and sovereignty and will not bow to petty, murderous thugs” in a letter to the president – select Monday.
González-Colón called Maduro’s threat “an open threat to the United States, our national security and stability in the region.”
Puerto Rico is home to critical U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection assets and units that help secure our borders and fight the drug trafficking networks that fund the Maduro drug regime, she wrote. “In fact, the United States shares a maritime border with them Venezuela in Puerto Rico.”
The call to Trump comes at an awkward time for the president-elect, who recently refused to rule out military force in its own stated global expansion it aims to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland.
“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” Trump said. “I’ve been told that for a long time.” He stressed that Denmark should “leave the country to the US “because we need it for national security”.
Maduro threatened Puerto Rico during a speech in Caracas on Sunday.
“Just as the north has a colonization plan, we have a liberation plan,” Maduro said. “That agenda was written for us by Simon Bolivar,” who led six South American countries to independence from Spain.
“Puerto Rico’s freedom is pending, and we will achieve it with Brazilian troops,” he added.
Puerto Ricans have consistently voted against independence, which Gonzalez noted in her letter. She also highlighted the non-binding referendum in November, in which voters overwhelmingly voted for Puerto Rico to become a state.
“We voted to strengthen our union with the United States through statehood,” González-Colon wrote.
Maduro was sworn in for his third term only last week after being re-elected in elections that were widely considered illegitimate.