President Donald Trump said Monday that he is “seriously considering” making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state, a suggestion that was swiftly dismissed by the country’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump expressed his interest in potentially annexing the South American nation, according to a social media post by the network’s co-anchor John Roberts. The White House has not yet responded to requests for comment on the matter.

Rodríguez, who assumed power in January following a U.S. military operation that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro, firmly rejected the idea while speaking to journalists at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Venezuela is currently engaged in a dispute with neighboring Guyana over the mineral- and oil-rich Essequibo region.

“We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” Rodríguez declared, emphasizing that Venezuela is “not a colony, but a free country.” She went on to say that Venezuelan and U.S. officials have been in contact and are working on “cooperation and understanding.”

The acting president’s comments come as tensions between the two countries have eased somewhat since the U.S. military operation that led to Maduro’s capture and extradition to New York on drug trafficking charges. Maduro has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Rodríguez’s remarks at the U.N.’s highest court focused primarily on defending Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo region, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana and is rich in natural resources, including gold, diamonds, timber, and offshore oil deposits. Venezuela has long considered the territory its own, but an 1899 arbitration decision largely favored Guyana.

The acting president argued that a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva effectively nullified the 19th-century ruling and that political negotiations, rather than a judicial decision, should resolve the century-old territorial dispute. She accused Guyana’s government of undermining the agreement by seeking a court ruling on the matter following ExxonMobil’s significant oil discovery off the Essequibo coast in 2015.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)