President Donald Trump said on Friday he will speak with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro soon and he will say “something very specific” to him as Washington D.C. continues to escalate pressure on Caracas.
Speaking to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Trump repeatedly refused to provide more details on his next move, but claimed his administration will be “very involved.”
Trump had already said last weekend that he could talk to Maduro, and that Caracas wanted to engage in dialogue. However, at the same time his administration is set to officially designate the Cartel de los Soles, which it accuses Maduro and other top officials of leading, as a terrorist organization on Monday.
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government. Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,” said the State Department in a release.
Maduro has repeatedly called for dialogue with Trump, but is showing defiance at the same time. On Wednesday he said “heavy weaponry and missiles” had been deployed in a key part of the country.
Maduro said the deployment is part of a “comprehensive defense plan” and fortifies the corridor between Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira.
He showed the area in a map during a televised address, noting that the plan detailed how the regime intends to defend the population from external threats “street by street, community by community, weapon by weapon, weapons system by weapons system.”
In another passage of the address, Maduro added that an “arsenal of weapons for the militiamen and militiawomen is already in place.” He claimed that over 8 million people enrolled in the militia during a drive in August after the U.S. began its military deployment in the area.
Originally published on Latin Times
