The president of the United States confirmed this Sunday to journalists traveling on Air Force One that last week he had a telephone conversation with Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, whom the United States considers the leader of the Suns cartel, an organization that the State Department has just classified as a terrorist organization. “I don’t want to comment on it. The answer is yes,” Trump acknowledged when he returned by plane from spending a few days at Mar-a-Lago, his property in Florida, where he escapes on weekends to play golf.
The telephone conversation, advanced by The New York Times Last Friday, it occurred in full verbal and military escalation between the United States and Venezuela. President Trump has given the order to launch a war against drug trafficking that comes from Latin America. It has set its main objective in Venezuela. The White House considers the Caribbean country a narco-state and Maduro the leader of an alleged criminal group called the Suns cartel. US authorities have not provided evidence of these accusations.
Telephone contact could open a diplomatic avenue for a long-standing conflict. During Trump’s first term, between 2016 and 2020, he already threatened Maduro with actions if he did not give up power. Trump considers the Venezuelan leader an illegitimate president after alleged irregularities in the 2014 presidential election.
The president downplayed the message he published on Saturday on Truth, his social network, through which he expresses his opinions, in which he warned about the total closure of Venezuelan airspace. “Don’t give it any more importance,” he responded when asked about it. And he warned that the comment about the closure of Venezuelan airspace does not imply an imminent attack by the US army on the territory of the Caribbean country. “Don’t read anything between the lines,” he insisted.
President Trump likes to threaten the idea of imminent military intervention. Last Thursday, during his Thanksgiving speech, he took the opportunity to warn that the United States will begin “very soon” to arrest the “drug traffickers” of Venezuela. “On land it’s easier,” he said. “We have warned them: Stop sending poison to our country,” he added, in reference to drug trafficking for which he blames the Chavista regime.
On September 2, the United States launched Operation Southern Spear against drug trafficking cartels. The Trump Administration places, without evidence, the epicenter of the activity of these alleged groups in Venezuela, a country that The White House considers a narco-state. Since then, the US military has launched 21 attacks against drug boats sailing through the waters of the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, killing 83 people. These military operations, ordered by Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, did not have judicial support or the endorsement of the United States Congress.
Precisely, the first of these operations is going to be investigated by both chambers of the United States Congress for suspicions of war crimes. According to information provided by Washington Poston September 2 there was a bombing against a drug boat with 11 crew members. Two of them survived the first impact, but, according to the American publication, another attack was ordered to comply with the guidelines of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He denies the accusations.
The United States’ harassment of the Maduro regime does not have many precedents in history. Perhaps the closest thing was the operation to depose the Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1989. Although the US military forces have not yet reached that point.
President Trump, however, has ordered the largest deployment of troops to the region in decades. There are thousands of soldiers ready alongside Venezuela, with air and maritime support. A few weeks ago, the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier of the US Navy, the USS Gerald R. Ford, joined the mission, along with other warships. The pressure on the Maduro regime is suffocating. Beyond the economic sanctions, military harassment is added.
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