Donald Trump continues to send contradictory messages about his plans for Venezuela. The US president assured on Sunday that he was willing to speak with the leader of the Chavista regime, Nicolás Maduro, but on Monday he added during a press conference at the White House that he does not rule out “anything”, not even the sending of troops to the field.
Maduro, for his part, continues with his tactic of trying to reduce tensions and lead the situation towards a peaceful solution. “Whoever wants to talk to Venezuela will talk face to face, face to face, without any problem,” he invited during the broadcast of his program. With Maduro+broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). “Dialogue is the way to seek truth and peace,” he added.
Trump’s statements, however, have been much more ambiguous. “I don’t rule out anything,” he confessed about his intentions for Venezuela after increasing the US military deployment in the Caribbean for months. “We have to take care of Venezuela,” said the Republican president, whose Administration defends that this campaign focuses exclusively on stopping drug trafficking in the region.
So far, the US military has launched 21 attacks against suspected drug boats in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, killing at least 83 people. The Trump Government, which last week announced the start of the Operation Southern Lancehas not yet provided any evidence that the bombed boats were loaded with drugs.
Trump has privately discussed with his advisers how to gain access to Venezuela’s huge oil reserves, the largest in the world, while some of his top aides, led by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, want to bring about the fall of the Maduro regime. The US does not recognize the Chavista leader as the legitimate president of Venezuela after last year’s elections.
Insisted during the press conference at the White House about the possibility of sitting down to negotiate with Maduro, Trump said: “I would probably talk to him, yes. I talk to everyone.” “Whoever wants to dialogue will always find in us people of their word, decent people and people with experience to lead Venezuela,” said the Venezuelan president.
Maduro also pointed to an alleged plot within the United States to take down the Republican president: “They want President Trump to make the most serious mistake of his entire life and go militarily against Venezuela, which would be the political end of his leadership and his name, and they are inciting him, provoking him,” he said, also citing the Epstein case.
This Sunday, the US State Department announced that it will designate, as of November 24, the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), a group that Washington links to Maduro, whose Government considers that statement “an invention.”
The Pentagon announced on Sunday, before Trump’s latest remarks, that the US Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Fordwith 5,000 soldiers and dozens of combat aircraft on board, and its attack group, were deployed to the Caribbean. This is in addition to the eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft that were already in the region.