Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The Venezuelan leader strikes a conciliatory tone while reaffirming that the United States wants to overthrow the government to access vast oil reserves.
Venezuela is willing to negotiate a deal with the United States to combat drug trafficking, President Nicolas Maduro said, even as he remained silent about a CIA-led attack on his country last week.
The latest statement, made in an interview broadcast Thursday, comes as Maduro has adopted a more conciliatory tone toward the United States amid sanctions and Washington’s months-long military pressure campaign.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 elementsend of list
This included, on Thursday, the release of more than 80 prisoners accused of protesting his disputed victory in the 2024 elections, the second such release in recent days.
“Wherever they want and whenever they want,” Maduro told Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet about the idea of a dialogue with the United States on drug trafficking, oil and migration in an interview on state television.
He stressed that it was time for the two countries to “start talking seriously, with data in hand”.
“The U.S. government knows, because we have told several of its spokespeople, that if it wants to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we are ready,” he said.
Maduro nevertheless reiterated his allegations that the United States is trying to overthrow his government and gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves through sanctions and Washington’s months-long military pressure campaign.
“If they want oil, Venezuela is ready to welcome American investments, like with Chevron,” he added, referring to the American oil giant, which is the only major oil company to export Venezuelan crude to the United States.
Asked categorically by Ramonet whether he confirmed or denied a US attack on Venezuelan soil, Maduro replied: “We could talk about it in a few days. »
To date, Maduro has not confirmed a U.S. ground attack on a dock that allegedly targeted drug boats.
For months, the United States has launched numerous strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats from Venezuela, in what rights groups have called extrajudicial killings. The Trump administration also imposed a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the coast of Venezuela.
Tensions further escalated after Trump earlier this week revealed a strike on a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats, in the first known attack on Venezuelan territory in the US campaign.
Trump did not confirm widespread reports in US media that the attack was a CIA operation or where it took place, saying only that it took place “along the shore”.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they were loading the boats with drugs,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“So we’ve hit all the boats and now we’re hitting the area, that’s the implementation area, that’s where they’re implementing. And that’s not there anymore.”
The US president has repeatedly threatened to ground the region’s drug cartels, which he has described as “narcoterrorists”. He claimed, without providing evidence, that Maduro led a trafficking organization aimed at destabilizing the United States by flooding it with drugs.
However, regional experts have noted that Venezuela is not known to be involved in the illicit fentanyl trade, which accounts for by far the largest number of overdose deaths in the United States. Trump has labeled drugs a “weapon of mass destruction”.
Maduro said the Trump administration’s approach “clearly” shows that the United States “seeks to impose itself” on Venezuela through “threat, intimidation and force.”
Maduro’s interview was recorded on New Year’s Eve, the same day the US military struck five suspected drug-trafficking boats, killing at least five people.
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat collisions in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115, according to figures announced by the Trump administration.
Venezuelans and Colombians are among the victims.
