Venezuela not to have new elections in next 30 days, Trump says

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Venezuela will not have new elections in the next 30 days, President Donald Trump said Monday.

"We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote," Trump said in an interview with NBC News.

"No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have to nurse the country back to health," he added.

Trump said Saturday that US military action had resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, also pledging to assert American control over the country for the time being, with US troops if necessary.

He stressed that the US is not at war with Venezuela.

"No, we’re not," he said. "We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country."

Additionally, he told NBC News that the US could help subsidize oil companies’ efforts to rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure, a process he estimated could be completed in under 18 months.

"I think we can do it in less time than that, but it'll be a lot of money," Trump said. "A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue."