It has taken a while, but the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has confirmed that on November 21: “About 10 days ago, the White House called the Miraflores Palace and I had a conversation with President Donald Trump. It was in a tone of respect, even cordial,” he said in a speech that the state channel VTV broadcast from an event in Petare, in the metropolitan area of Caracas. The Venezuelan president, who has not offered more details, arguing that his years as chancellor have taught him to act with “prudence” when dealing with delicate matters, but has expressed his desire that the contact open a path of “respectful dialogue from country to country”, whose diplomatic relations have been frozen since 2019.
Maduro’s public confirmation comes after days of rumors fueled by leaks in the United States and in the absence of explanations from Caracas since The New York Times revealed the existence of that call and Trump ratified it on board the Air Force One with a brief “the answer is yes”. Since then, contact between both leaders has become a central element of this diplomatic crisis.
Nicolás Maduro made these statements during the celebration of a Chavismo event with which he wants to reinforce the idea of unity of his Government – in Petare the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, and the Venezuelan military leadership were present -, in full tension with Washington. The Venezuelan president recalled his years as a diplomat in the Government of Hugo Chávez and reiterated his willingness to explore avenues for negotiation with the United States. He avoided, however, responding to the latest insults from Donald Trump, who promised to put an end to “all those sons of bitches” when referring to the cartels that, according to the US, operate in Venezuela.
Maduro also made no reference to the possibility of a regime change in Venezuela or to what he would have offered to Donald Trump to abandon power: he and his family would obtain a total amnesty, the sanctions applied would be lifted for a hundred senior officials, or the vice president would Delcy Rodriguez take the reins of an interim Government. Various American media indicated that Trump rejected the offer. None of that appeared in Maduro’s public intervention.
Trump toughens his speech even more
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has denied that there was a second contact between the two presidents. Especially after. Even so, Trump has taken advantage of an appearance to
mention the conversation again, although without providing more details: “I spoke briefly with him about a couple of issues. Let’s see what happens,” he said from the White House.
What it has done, however, is support the military operations that the United States is carrying out against vessels that Washington links to drug trafficking – 21 attacks and at least 82 deaths, according to the Pentagon – and, also, to support the responsible officials: Admiral Frank Bradley, who ordered the bombings, and the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who endorsed them. “I support the decision to disable the ships and whoever pilots them,” he said. When asked about the possibility of sanctioning them for bombing the attacked boats with survivors, he avoided committing: “I think they are going to discover that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions,” he added about the possible consequences.
This Wednesday, several platforms online Aircraft monitoring detected the flight of two American bombers near the western coast of Venezuela. In fact, Washington cautioned when passing through the area, considering that they were going through a “potentially dangerous situation.” The Venezuelan Government, which on other occasions described similar maneuvers as provocations, chose not to comment this time.
Despite the tension between Venezuela and the United States, both governments maintain open operational channels and Maduro confirmed this Wednesday the arrival in Maiquetía of a flight with 266 deportees from Phoenix, Arizona, within the immigration agreement that Caracas and Washington reactivated at the beginning of the year. According to official figures, this year 14,407 Venezuelans have already returned from the US, 78% of the total repatriated in 2024. In parallel, another plane with 304 migrants landed in Venezuela from Mexico.
For the Venezuelan Government, this coordination demonstrates that the bilateral relationship is not completely broken and that spaces for dialogue remain even in the midst of the military escalation and diplomatic pressure from the Trump Administration.
