<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A day after the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/venezuela-explosions-reported-in-capital-caracas/79b4f99d-181e-4fc5-8ddb-f5a48d197d22" rel="" target="_blank" title="audacious US military operation in Venezuela"><span>audacious US military operation in Venezuela</span></a><span>, President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="_blank" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span> renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of US security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is "in a lot of trouble."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the US administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/nicolas-maduro-capture-marco-rubio-says-us-wont-govern-venezuela/bffb111e-7cfb-4873-908e-65c4235af732" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Rubio denies US will 'run' Venezuela despite Trump's comments</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring "American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere" as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary – a justification invoked by the US in supporting Panama's secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the US – as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbours and beyond.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth US president's foundational document as the "Don-roe Doctrine."</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/nicolas-maduro-capture-who-is-next-on-donald-trumps-list/af7c3564-5821-48b2-a45e-86f942e0f0b4" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/switzerland-new-years-eve-fire-victims/41c2c424-9250-4b2d-9d5c-3853605d66f7" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Teenagers as young as 14 among victims of Swiss bar fire that killed at least 40</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>A stern warning to Cuba</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela's most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. US-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's </span><em><span>Meet the Press</span></em><span>, said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It was Cubans that guarded Maduro," Rubio said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-captures-maduro-venezuelans-grapple-with-future/9a11f322-bc98-46db-a59e-0baaf9916c29" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Fury, chaos as Venezuelans grapple with future after Maduro's capture</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of "internal intelligence" in Maduro's government, including "who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump on Saturday told reporters that he viewed the Cuban government as "very similar" to Venezuela.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people," Trump said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela's government and railed against the US military operation, writing in a statement: "All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is the 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," Rubio said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an "aggression against a sovereign state."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs," Rodríguez said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Anger over Greenland comments</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We do need Greenland, absolutely," Trump said in an interview with </span><em><span>The Atlantic</span></em><span> in which he described the strategically located Arctic island as "surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked what the US-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: "They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don't know." The White House did not respond to a request for comment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Saturday's dead-of-night operation by US forces in Caracas and Trump's Atlantic interview heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-threats-greenland-danish-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-urges-halt/48395950-9d0e-4e4c-984f-6608705911f4" rel="" target="_blank" title="in a statement following Trump's latest comments on Greenland said he has &quot;no right to annex&quot; the territory"><span>in a statement following Trump's latest comments on Greenland said he has "no right to annex" the territory</span></a><span>. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the US, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I would therefore strongly urge the US to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale," Frederiksen said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that "the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected" as Trump has vowed to "run" Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colours of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: "SOON."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark," Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for US jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Governor Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump "make Greenland a part of the US."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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