US President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his provocative rhetoric on territorial expansion by sharing a map on social media suggesting the United States should extend its control over Venezuela.
Trump posted a map on his Truth Social platform where Venezuela's territory is filled in with the US flag. The photoshopped image reads: "51st State."
A day earlier US broadcaster Fox News quoted Trump as saying that he was "seriously considering" making Venezuela the 51st US state.
Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez on Monday rejected Trump's comments, saying: "That is not on the agenda."
Venezuela is not a colony and the government in Caracas will continue to protect the country's integrity, sovereignty and independence, she said. "President Trump knows that we have been working on a diplomatic agenda of cooperation. That is the course, and that is the way forward," Rodríguez added.
Trump's allusions to a 51st US state are reminiscent of earlier statements about neighbouring Canada. He has repeatedly floated the idea of bringing Canada under US control, a wild proposal that Ottawa has firmly rejected.
Trump has also made outright territorial claims to Danish-administered Greenland which sparked considerable outrage in Europe.
This is not the first time Trump shared doctored images suggesting the US should extend its control over Venezuela. In January, he posted a map showing the US, Venezuela, Greenland and Canada covered in the red, white and blue of the US flag.
Oil-rich Venezuela has been in a phase of political upheaval since the US overthrew authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro at the start of the year.
The US and the interim government led by Rodríguez, formerly Maduro's vice president, have since agreed to resume diplomatic relations to support economic recovery and political stabilization. The two sides have been discussing a stronger collaboration in expanding oil and raw material production.
