The day after the United States carried out an illegal military attack on Venezuela and kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration unleashed a torrent of threats against countries around the world, targeting not only Latin America, but North America, Europe and Asia.

In remarks to The Atlantic on Sunday, President Trump threatened Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as acting president on Saturday, with a fate “worse” than that of Maduro.

“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price,” Trump said. “Probably bigger than Maduro.”

Trump’s threat against Rodríguez came just hours after he had claimed at Saturday’s press conference that she had agreed to cooperate with US demands. Her public statements have been defiant, denouncing the US operation as “a barbarity” and calling Maduro Venezuela’s “only president.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggested that Cuba would be the next target of US military operations.

When asked whether Cuba was the Trump administration’s “next target,” Rubio replied: “The Cuban government is a huge problem.” Pressed again, he said: “They are in a lot of trouble, yes.”

Trump went even further, renewing his threat to annex Greenland, a territory of Denmark and a NATO ally of the United States.

“We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense,” Trump told The Atlantic, describing the island as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” Asked whether the military operation in Venezuela signaled a willingness to use force to take Greenland, Trump declined to rule it out.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded Sunday that the United States has “no right to annex” Danish territory. Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, which retains control over the island’s foreign policy and defense.

In a series of Sunday talk show appearances, Rubio made clear that the United States was not seeking new elections in Venezuela. The administration’s highest priority, he explained, was to seize control of Venezuela’s oil resources—the largest proven reserves in the world.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan noted that “María Corina Machado and Edmundo González won that 2024 election, by your own account,” and asked Rubio: “Is there an agreement to transition to democracy?”

Rubio said elections were “premature,” adding, “the number one thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States.” In other words, the United States government does not care to even attempt to give a pretense of upholding “democracy” to a criminal looting operation.

The strategy is extortion through economic strangulation. The US naval blockade—which Rubio euphemistically calls a “quarantine”—prevents Venezuela from exporting oil, cutting off the government’s primary source of revenue. The blockade will remain in place, Rubio explained, until Venezuela opens its nationalized oil industry to American corporations under terms dictated by Washington.

The attack on Venezuela is part of the broader US confrontation with China and Russia. China currently purchases 80 percent of Venezuelan oil exports. By seizing control of Venezuela’s oil industry, Washington aims to deprive its rivals of a major energy source.

Rubio declared: “Why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even in this continent. 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.”

Republican Senator Tom Cotton was even more thuggish: “Where were they when Delta Force went in and got Nicolás Maduro? They were nowhere to be found. And, frankly, that’s the same thing you saw in June with China and Russia in Iran. We struck Iran. China and Russia did nothing. They stood idly by. That’s a reminder that the United States is still the world’s dominant superpower.”

The events since Saturday’s attack have made clear that this conflict is spiraling into a broader war. The claim, repeated by Rubio on ABC’s “This Week,” that this is “a law enforcement operation” rather than a war is a total absurdity.

Eighty Venezuelans—soldiers and civilians—were killed in the assault. US forces destroyed at least five buildings at Venezuela’s largest military base. American warships are blockading the country’s ports. The president of a sovereign nation has been kidnapped and is being held in a Brooklyn jail. And the Trump administration is now openly threatening murder, annexation and further military strikes across multiple continents.

These actions are totally illegal. The military assault on Venezuela violates Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” The naval blockade constitutes an act of aggression under UN General Assembly Resolution 3314, which explicitly lists “the blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State” as aggression. The seizure of Venezuela’s oil resources constitutes pillage under international humanitarian law. None of these actions were authorized by the UN Security Council, and none meet the requirements of Article 51 self-defense, which requires an actual armed attack.

The Democratic Party offers no opposition to this criminal war of aggression aimed at seizing Venezuela’s oil resources. Congressional Democrats have limited themselves to procedural complaints while embracing the administration’s justifications for the attack.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared: “Let me be clear, Maduro is an illegitimate dictator,” complaining only that the war was launched “without a credible plan for what comes next” and without sufficient briefings to Congress.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stuck to the same script, declaring, “We’re in the euphoria period of acknowledging across the board that Maduro was a bad guy and that our military is absolutely incredible.” Jeffries declared that Maduro is “not the legitimate head of government”—fully accepting the administration’s fraudulent premise for the attack—and criticized Trump only for failing to “properly notify Congress.”

The working class cannot rely on any faction of the ruling class to oppose this war. Opposition must come from below, from the independent mobilization of workers in the United States, Venezuela and internationally against imperialist aggression.