Amid growing tensions, President Donald Trump says Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “would like to talk,” and the U.S. might agree.
“I’d talk to anybody. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Sunday night.
Trump made the comments only hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the U.S. is designating a prominent Venezuelan criminal cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Maduro, according to Rubio, is the head of Cartel de los Soles, which translates to Cartel of the Suns.
“Headed by the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro, the group has corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence conducted by and with other designated [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,” Rubio wrote on X Sunday.
The designation provides the U.S. with additional means to curtail support and operations of a terrorist organization, in this case, Cartel de los Soles.
Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have been growing in recent months, largely over drug smuggling out of the South American country. Now, the U.S. has moved the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, into the Caribbean Sea.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Maduro addressed a crowd at a political rally in Venezuela and spoke of “peace” with the U.S. before breaking into John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
U.S. has not carried out any direct strikes on Venezuela, but in October, Trump said the U.S. would consider such a strike. The Trump administration has given the CIA permission to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, the president confirmed last month.
The U.S. has carried out about 20 strikes on drug boards in the Eastern Pacific or Caribbean Sea in recent months. U.S. Southern Command announced the most recent strike in the Eastern Pacific on Sunday.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” U.S. Southern Command wrote on X, adding that three male narco-terrorists were killed in the strike that took place in international waters.
Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear, writing on X, “This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood—and we will protect it.”
