Trump Says It would be Smart for Venezuela’s Maduro to Step Down

However, Venezuela’s key ally Moscow has expressed “full support” for the Maduro government as Washington escalates military operations and threats against Caracas.

Asked by reporters at his home in Florida whether Washington’s threats were designed to force Maduro to leave office after 12 years, Trump said: “It depends on him, it depends on what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that.”

But he added: “If he wants to do something, if he plays hard, that will be the last time he plays hard.”

The earlier promise from Moscow, which is embroiled in the war in Ukraine, came on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday where the escalating crisis will be discussed.

Foreign ministers of allied countries in a phone call condemned US actions, which included attacks on boats allegedly smuggling drugs and the recent seizure of two oil tankers.

A third ship was being followed, a US official told AFP on Sunday.

“Ministers expressed deep concern about the escalation of Washington’s actions in the Caribbean Sea, which could have serious consequences for the region and threaten international shipping,” the Russian foreign ministry said about the meeting between Sergei Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil. he said.

“The Russian side reaffirmed its full support and solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in the current context,” the statement said. The statement was included.

Since September, US forces have been carrying out attacks on boats that Washington claims, without providing evidence, to be smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

More than 100 people, some of them fishermen, were killed, according to their families and the government.

US President Trump announced on December 16 that “sanctioned oil ships” traveling to and from Venezuela would be blockaded.

Trump claims that Caracas under Maduro uses oil money to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.”

He also accused Venezuela of taking “all of our oil” and said “we want it back”, an apparent reference to the country’s nationalization of its oil sector.

Caracas also fears that Washington is seeking regime change and accuses Washington of “international piracy”.

Moscow’s statement stated that Lavrov and Gil agreed on the call to “coordinate their actions on the international stage, especially before the UN.”

Russia and China, another Venezuelan ally, backed Caracas’ request to hold a UNSC meeting to discuss what it called “ongoing US aggression.”

– Russia has its ‘hands full’ –

Venezuelan Gil said on Telegram that he and Lavrov discussed “attacks carried out in the Caribbean and flagrant violations of international law: attacks on ships, extrajudicial killings and illegal acts of piracy carried out by the US government.”

Gil said Lavrov confirmed Moscow’s “full support in the face of hostilities against our country.”

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio brushed aside Moscow’s support for Caracas.

He said that Washington “is not worried about an escalation by Russia regarding Venezuela” because “its business is in Ukraine.”

US-Russia relations have deteriorated in recent weeks as Trump expressed frustration with Moscow over the lack of a solution to the Ukraine war.

On state television on Monday, Gil also read a letter signed by Maduro and addressed to UN member states warning that a US blockade would “impact oil and energy supplies” globally.