WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he remains open to speaking with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, despite Washington’s recent decision to designate him as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization.
“We’ll see, but we’re discussing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled from Washington, DC to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, when asked if he will talk to Maduro.
Asked why he still wants to talk to Maduro despite designating him as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization, Trump responded: “If we can save lives, if we can do things the easy way, that’s fine. And if we have to do it the hard way, that’s fine too.”
Pressed on his objectives for any possible talks, he suggested that the answer was obvious.
“You should probably know what the goal is,” he said.
“They’ve caused a lot of problems, and they’ve sent millions of people into our country,” he said.
Trump claimed that Venezuela had been “the biggest abuser” among countries that, according to the administration, transferred criminals to the US.
“They sent in the drug dealers, the drug lords…the jailbirds. They opened their jails and prisons and dumped them into the United States, and we’re not happy about it,” he said.
The US on Monday formally designated the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
Tensions between the US and Venezuela have been on the rise since Trump in August ordered a military deployment in the Caribbean with the aim of attacking drug cartels and stopping drug trafficking routes, which are linked to Maduro.
Caracas maintains that what is being sought is regime change.
Since early September, the US military has carried out a total of 21 strikes on vessels it claimed were loaded with drugs, killing 83 people, and Trump has signaled that he could attack alleged drug trafficking targets on the ground in Venezuela.
