Trump claims Maduro willing to give ‘everything’ to ease US tensions | Venezuela

Donald Trump used an expletive to threaten Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Friday, claiming the left-wing autocrat had offered major concessions to appease the United States.

The US president spoke to reporters at the White House on Friday during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

When asked about reports that Maduro was offering “everything in his country, all the natural resources” to ease tensions, he said. Trump agreed: “He offered everything; you’re right. Do you know why? Because he doesn’t want to mess around with the USA.”

Maduro, who came to power in 2013, has recently increased security powers and deployed tens of thousands of soldiers across the country. He also accused Trump of seeking regime change; The US president downplayed the claim.

Last week the New York Times Maduro reported He has offered in recent months to buy a stake in Venezuela’s oil and other mineral wealth to fend off growing pressure from the United States.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan government officials are said to have put forward a plan under which Maduro would eventually leave office. Miami Herald newspaper reported this Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and his brother Jorge, president of the national assembly, have floated overtures through intermediaries in Qatar to present themselves as a “more acceptable” alternative to Washington.

The United States has acknowledged at least five attacks on ships it said were carrying drugs near Venezuela, killing at least 27 people.

The sixth attack on a suspected drug ship in the Caribbean on Thursday, in what is believed to be the first such incident, included survivors among the crew who were reportedly rescued and held aboard a navy ship.

single source he told Reuters The ship hit on Thursday was said to have gone underwater and was likely a semi-submersible ship, a submarine-like vessel used by drug traffickers to avoid detection.

Trump confirmed to reporters: “We attacked a submarine. It was a drug-carrying submarine, specifically built to transport large amounts of drugs, you see.”

“This was not an innocent group of people. I don’t know too many people with submarines, and this was an attack on a submarine loaded with drugs.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also present, did not dispute that there were survivors and has repeatedly said details would be released soon.

While the United States identified some of the victims in the first five attacks as Venezuelans, Colombian President Gustavo Petro claimed that some of them were from his own country. Family members of a man believed to have been killed on strike in Trinidad this week have demanded evidence that he was a drug trafficker.

The Venezuelan government said the attacks were illegal, amounted to murder and were an attack on the country.

Trump justified the attacks by arguing that the United States was engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority that the George W. Bush administration used to declare a war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.

But legal experts have warned that the president’s use of overwhelming military force to combat cartels and authority for covert action inside Venezuela to possibly oust Maduro stretches the limits of international law.

Human Rights Watch America Director Juanita Goebertus Estrada said the attacks violated international human rights law and amounted to extrajudicial execution.

“The United States is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, or the criminal groups allegedly involved. By human rights law standards, law enforcement officials must seek to minimize injuries and protect human life. They may use lethal force only when absolutely unavoidable to protect against an imminent threat of death or serious injury,” he said.

The strikes caused unease among Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, with some Republicans saying they were not getting enough information about how the strikes were being conducted.

Friday’s outburst was not the first time Trump filled his diplomatic language with profanities. In June, he told a group of journalists fed up with Israel and Iran attacking each other after the ceasefire that the countries had been “fighting for so long and so fiercely that they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”