Donald Trump and Nicolás Maduro talking? The perspective is on the table, despite the maxims. The Republican has made known to his team his plans to speak directly with the Venezuelan, according to the news portal Axios, on the same day that Washington has officially designated the Chavista as leader of a foreign terrorist organization and the .
So far there is no firm date set for the conversation, according to the same sources.
Trump’s idea may indicate that, despite the concentration of military power that the United States has amassed in the Caribbean, the possibility of direct US action in Venezuelan territory is not foreseen at the moment, or in any case would be delayed, as has been feared since the first warships began to arrive in the area.
“No one plans to go and shoot him.” [a Maduro] or kidnap him – for now. You can never say never, but right now it is not in the plans,” an anonymous senior official told the outlet. “In the meantime, we will continue sinking drug boats. We are going to stop drug trafficking.” Since September 2, the US operation called Lanza del Sur has attacked at least 21 vessels and killed at least 83 people in bombings that experts, legislators and human rights defenders consider extrajudicial and illicit executions.
The information published coincides with the entry into force this Monday of the , an expression that encompasses corrupt Venezuelan officials and soldiers who benefit from links and income from drug trafficking. The inclusion in that list of a group that, according to Washington, is led by Maduro himself gives the Trump Administration, in the opinion of its senior officials, an argument for a new phase of military actions in Venezuelan territory or its vicinity.
Also this Monday, the highest US military official, the Chief of the General Staff, General Dan Caine, to meet with soldiers and officers of the Southern Command, responsible for US military operations in Latin America. It is believed that most of the nearly 15,000 soldiers mobilized for Operation “Southern Lance” are located on that island. This Tuesday, Caine will also travel to Trinidad and Tobago, as reported by the Government in Port of Spain.
Without ruling out a possible beginning of a second phase in that operation, Trump has also himself pointed out the possibility of negotiations with Venezuela that would allow the problem to be resolved through diplomatic means.
Eight days ago, coinciding with the aircraft carrier’s arrival in the area Gerald Ford, the largest in the world, the American president had declared: “It is possible that we are going to talk, that we are going to have conversations with Maduro. We will see how it turns out. They would like to talk.” Trump, who at that time was speaking to the press at the West Palm Beach airport (Florida), about to board the Air Force One, He did not then give more details.
Last week, the newspaper The New York Times published that Trump had authorized covert CIA actions inside Venezuela. However, at the same time a long-closed communication channel between the two countries had been reopened. Through that channel, Maduro had come to offer his departure within a couple of years. That delay, however, was flatly rejected by the United States, according to the newspaper.
A Trump adviser quoted by Axios states: “I see a diplomatic solution as quite likely.” “Donald Trump hasn’t said it directly, but he wants his presidential legacy to be that he did everything he could to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country,” he adds.
In the first months of Trump’s term, the White House envoy for Venezuela, Richard Grenell, took some steps in that direction. The diplomat established contacts with the Chavista regime and traveled to Caracas for talks that resulted in the release of six Americans detained in the South American country and the Maduro Government accepting repatriation flights for nationals deported by the United States.
