‘This is where we live’: Rubio responds to US need to take over Venezuelan oil; warns China, Russia, Iran

“This is western hemisphere. This is where we live” was the answer of US secretary of state Marco Rubio when asked what was the need to take over Venezuelan oil industry if the purpose of operation was to bring now deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to justice.

Rubio in an interview to NBC news on Sunday asserted that the US won't let Western Hemisphere to be a “base of operation” for American adversaries, competitors, and rivals.


“We don’t need to for the purpose of backup, we have plenty of oil. But what we are not going to allow is the oil industry of Venezuela to be run by adversaries of the United States.”


He went on to question the rationale behind China, Russia and Iran’s involvement in the Venezuelan oil industry.

“You have to understand, why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They are not even on this continent. This is Western Hemisphere. This is where we live – and we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States. We want the proceeds of the oil of that country to benefit people of Venezuela.”

He further pointed to the mass migration Venezuela has witnessed since 2014, pinning blame of it to the foreign involvement in Caracas and attributed it as the reason behind destabilizing the region

“This is deeply destabilizing stuff. It's not going to continue to happen!, he said. "They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard and we have to pay the price for it. Not under President Trump!"

On being asked about the Congressional approval Rubio said the operation didn’t need one as it wasn’t an invasion.

"This was not an action that required congressional approval... This was not an invasion. This was not an extended military operation. This was a very precise operation that required a couple of hours of action and it was a delicate operation too. It was an operation that required all of these conditions to be in place at the right time at the right place. We could not afford leaks, we could not afford anything that would have put our mission in jeopardy.”