Venezuela is open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking, the country’s president Nicolás Maduro has said, but he declined to comment on a reported CIA-led strike on a Venezuelan docking area that Donald Trump claimed was used by cartels.
Maduro, in the pre-recorded interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, reiterated his belief that the US wants to force a change of government in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through its months-long pressure campaign that began with a massive military 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 said, later adding that it is time for both nations to “start talking seriously, with data in hand.”
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel and says it is cracking down on trafficking, accusations he denies.
“The US 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 said. “If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for US investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it.”
Chevron is the only major oil company exporting Venezuelan crude to the US. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
In the interview, Maduro refused to confirm whether the US had carried out an attack inside Venezuela, after Trump on Monday said the US had hit a docking facility that served Venezuelan drug trafficking boats last month.
Asked point-blank about the attack, Maduro said “this could be something we talk about in a few days.”
US media – including the Associated Press – has reported that the CIA was behind the strike which was made using a drone.
If confirmed, the first strike on land would mark a new phase in a campaign that since August has involved the deployment of a massive US naval fleet, airstrikes on alleged drug traffickers and a “total blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers, the seizure of two vessels and the pursuit of a third.
Maduro said he has not spoken to Trump since a conversation they had on 12 November, which he described as cordial and respectful.
“I think that conversation was even pleasant, but since then the evolution has not been pleasant. Let’s wait,” he said.
The interview was recorded on New Year’s Eve, the same day the US military announced strikes against five alleged drug-smuggling boats. The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. Venezuelans are among the victims.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The strikes began off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and later expanded to the eastern Pacific Ocean.
With the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
