Donald Trump and Nicolas Maduro talking? The prospect is on the table, despite maximum tension between the United States and Venezuela. The Republican made known to his team his intention to speak directly with the Venezuelan, according to the Axios news portal, on the same day that Washington officially designated the Chavista as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization and tension in the Caribbean is at an all-time high.
So far, no precise date has been set for the conversation, according to the same sources.
Trump’s idea could indicate that, despite the concentration of military power that the United States has accumulated in the Caribbean, the possibility of direct American action on Venezuelan territory is not foreseen at the moment, or in any case would be delayed, as was feared since the first warships began to arrive in the area.
“No one is planning to shoot Maduro or kidnap him at the moment. You can never say never, but at the moment it is not in the plans,” an anonymous senior official told the media. “In the meantime we will continue to sink drug boats. We will stop drug trafficking.” The US operation called Spear of the South has attacked at least 21 ships since September 2 and killed at least 83 people in attacks that experts, lawmakers and human rights advocates consider to be extrajudicial and unlawful killings.
The published information coincides with the entry into force this Monday of the designation as a foreign terrorist organization of the so-called Suns cartel, a term that includes corrupt Venezuelan officials and soldiers who profit from drug trafficking connections and profits. The inclusion in this list of a group that, according to Washington, is led by Maduro himself, provides the Trump administration, in the opinion of its senior officials, with an argument in favor of a new phase of military actions on or near Venezuelan territory.
Also this Monday, the top US military officer, Chief of Staff General Dan Caine, traveled to Puerto Rico to meet with soldiers and officers from the Southern Command, responsible for US military operations in Latin America. Most of the nearly 15,000 soldiers mobilized for Operation Southern Lance are believed to be on that island.
Without ruling out the start of a second phase of the operation, Trump himself underlined the possibility of negotiations with Venezuela which would allow the problem to be resolved through diplomatic channels.
Eight days ago, coinciding with the arrival of the aircraft carrier in the area Gerard Ford largest in the world, the American president had declared: “It is possible that we will talk, that we will have conversations with Maduro. We will see how it will end. They would like to talk.” Trump, who at that moment was speaking to the press at West Palm Beach airport (Florida), about to board Air Force One, He did not provide further details.
Last week, the newspaper The New York Times published that Trump had authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela. At the same time, however, a communication channel between the two countries, which had been closed for a long time, was reopened. Through that channel, Maduro had come to propose his departure within a couple of years. This delay, however, was categorically rejected by the United States, according to the newspaper.
A Trump adviser quoted by Axios says: “I see a diplomatic solution as very likely.” “Donald Trump hasn’t said it directly, but he wants his presidential legacy to be that he has done everything he can to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country,” he adds.
In the first months of Trump’s mandate, the White House envoy for Venezuela, Richard Grenell, took some steps in this direction. The diplomat established contacts with the Chavista regime and traveled to Caracas for talks that led to the release of six Americans detained in the South American country and the Maduro government’s acceptance of repatriation flights for citizens deported from the United States.
