Venezuela's Maduro denies drug trafficking; open to Trump talks
by Mike Heuer · UPIJan. 2 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said claims that his government engages in drug trafficking are lies, and he is willing to meet with President Donald Trump amid rising tensions.
Maduro on Thursday accused the Trump administration of knowingly making false claims of drug trafficking, including recent comments by Trump saying Venezuela's alleged drug trafficking is akin to using weapons of mass destruction
"Since they cannot accuse me, since they cannot accuse Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction, since they cannot accuse us of having nuclear rockets, of preparing a nuclear weapon, of having chemical weapons, they invented an accusation that the United States knows is as false as that accusation of weapons of mass destruction, which led them to an eternal war," Maduro said while referencing the Iraq War.
The Venezuelan president offered to work with U.S. officials to oppose drug trafficking and repeated his prior offers to meet with Trump to discuss the U.S. military targeting alleged drug vessels, seizing oil tankers and blockading Venezuelan ports.
"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 said in a taped interview on Venezuela's state-owned channel teleSUR.
The Venezuelan president also suggested his country and the United States could work together to enable U.S. firms to invest in Venezuela's oil industry "whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it."
Maduro refused to comment on a recently reported U.S. strike on an alleged drug-processing facility located among docks on Venezuela's Caribbean coastline.
The CIA also has refused to comment on the strike, which Trump announced on Monday and said "knocked out" a drug facility on Saturday night.
The president in October announced he authorized the CIA to undertake operations in Venezuela but did not say what kind.
The Defense Department also sent a carrier strike group to the Caribbean to stop alleged drug-trafficking fast boats from transporting drugs intended for the United States and Europe and more recently to blockade Venezuelan ports amid seizures of sanctioned vessels.
The White House has said the strikes on the alleged drug boats are intended to stop South American drug cartels from sending drugs to the United States, which has some U.S. officials questioning the legality of such strikes.
The U.S. Southern Command announced two more boat strikes that killed five in international waters on New Year's Eve.
The United States began striking the alleged drug boats in September and has sunk at least 36 and killed at least 115.
Most of the drug boat strikes, 23, have occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean and away from Venezuela, while 11 others occurred in the Caribbean Sea, with another two in undisclosed locations.
The United States also has placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro and recently sanctioned some of his family members for their alleged roles in drug trafficking.
Trump also has accused Maduro of intentionally sending criminals and others to the United States during the Biden administration, including members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang that he has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.