Maduro open to US talks on drug trafficking, however silent on CIA strike | EUROtoday

Venezuela is open to negotiating an settlement with the United States to fight drug trafficking, the South American nation’s President Nicolás Maduro stated in a pretaped interview aired Thursday on state tv, however he declined to touch upon a CIA-led strike final week at a Venezuelan docking space that the Trump administration believed was utilized by cartels.

Maduro, in an interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, reiterated that the U.S. needs to drive a authorities change in Venezuela and acquire entry to its huge oil reserves by the monthslong stress marketing campaign that started with a large army deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

“What are they seeking? It is clear that they seek to impose themselves through threats, intimidation and force,” Maduro stated, later including that it’s time for each nations to “start talking seriously, with data in hand.”

“The U.S. government knows, because we’ve told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we’re ready,” he stated. “If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it.”

Chevron Corp. is the one main oil firm exporting Venezuelan crude to the U.S. Venezuela has the world’s largest confirmed oil reserves.

The interview was taped on New Year’s Eve, the identical day the U.S. army introduced strikes in opposition to 5 alleged drug-smuggling boats. The newest assaults deliver the overall variety of identified boat strikes to 35 and the variety of folks killed to a minimum of 115, in accordance with numbers introduced by the Trump administration. Venezuelans are among the many victims.

President Donald Trump has justified the assaults as a essential escalation to stem the move of medication into the United States and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The strikes started off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and later expanded to the jap Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, the CIA was behind a drone strike final week at a docking space believed to have been utilized by Venezuelan drug cartels, in accordance with two folks conversant in particulars of the operation who requested anonymity to debate the categorised matter. It was the primary identified direct operation on Venezuelan soil for the reason that boat strikes started, a big escalation within the administration’s stress marketing campaign on Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism within the U.S.

Asked in regards to the operation on Venezuelan soil, Maduro stated he may “talk about it in a few days.”

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Associated Press author Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.