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The US president has been accusing the government in Caracas of aiding “narcoterrorist” drug cartels
US President Donald Trump said he is open to negotiating with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to defuse tensions and the ongoing war scare between the countries.
Trump has been accusing Maduro of operating “narcoterrorist” cartels, an allegation Maduro has denied.
“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out,” Trump said on Sunday in Florida before boarding a flight to Washington. “They would like to talk,” he added.
Trump also repeated his claim that the Venezuelan government was helping cartels smuggle drugs into the US and had released “hundreds of thousands” of violent criminals across the US border. He argued that the State Department’s designation of Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization would allow the US to strike targets on Venezuelan soil. “It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that,” Trump said.
The US has carried out strikes on more than 20 alleged cartel vessels in international waters in the Caribbean since September and dispatched a naval armada to the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. In August, Trump increased the bounty for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.
Maduro has denied the drug trafficking allegations and warned the US against launching “a crazy war.”
“No more endless wars. No more unjust wars. No more Libya. No more Afghanistan,” Maduro told CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon during a rally in Caracas on Thursday.
In response to the US military buildup, Maduro has placed the country’s army on high alert and initiated several drills.
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