(AFP) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has no love for Venezuela’s deposed leader Nicolas Maduro, and says he doesn’t take fashion inspiration from him. Flying with President Donald Trump to China, a picture of Rubio went viral as he was decked out in a grey Nike tracksuit. The suit — in brand and colour, if not size — resembled the Nike Tech Fleece attire sported by Maduro when he was photographed handcuffed in a helicopter after US forces snatched him in his sleep.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, posted on social media that Rubio was “rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One!” In his first public remarks on the viral picture, Rubio made clear he did not have Maduro in mind. “You know what — he copied me because I had it before. I mean, I don’t know when he bought his,” Rubio said of Maduro in an interview with “NBC Nightly News” from Beijing.
“The bottom line is that that’s a suit, that it’s comfortable,” Rubio said. “There was no message. I didn’t even know he was taking the picture.” Rubio, a Cuban-American, is a sworn foe of Latin America’s leftists and helped lay the groundwork for the January 3 operation to oust Maduro, a longtime nemesis of the United States. US prosecutors charged Maduro and his wife with drug trafficking, which they deny. Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez took over Venezuela with support of the United States.
© 2024 AFP
