Trump floated Venezuela invasion in 2017: Colombia ex-leader

US President Donald Trump first floated the idea of an "invasion" of Venezuela as far back as 2017, Colombian ex-president Juan Manuel Santos told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday.

Santos told the FT that Trump made the suggestion in September 2017, during his first term as president.

According to Santos's account, Trump asked him to convene a meeting of Latin American leaders at a New York hotel.

"When Trump arrived, he said half-jokingly, half-seriously, 'Look at Venezuela, I think it could be fixed quickly with an invasion.'"

Santos, Colombia's president from 2010 to 2018 who won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a peace deal with his country's rebel army FARC, said he and his fellow Latin American leaders "were rather surprised."

He said he told Trump an invasion was the "worst possible solution" to Venezuela's woes because of the anti-American sentiment it would generate in the region.

More than eight years later, after a months-long pressure campaign, Trump sent special forces to snatch Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in Caracas and whisk him to the United States to face trial on drug trafficking charges.

Santos said his reaction to the US attack was "positive that Maduro had gone, but negative on the consequences for the region and the world."

Santos noted that Trump has sidelined Venezuela's opposition from the country's transition and is instead working with Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez, who is now interim president.

Calling Maduro's rule "illegitimate," he argued that Rodriguez "is also illegitimate." 

"There is no logic there at all," Santos added.