Trump confirms phone call with Maduro; Caracas condemns US military maneuvers

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had recently spoken with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro amid escalating tensions, as Caracas accused Washington of preparing for a military strike.

The United States has intensified pressure on Venezuela through a significant military buildup in the Caribbean, the classification of what it claims is a Maduro-led drug cartel as a terrorist group, and Trump’s stark warning that Venezuelan airspace is “closed.”

Washington maintains that the deployment, launched in September, is aimed at combating drug trafficking, but Venezuelan authorities argue that the true intention is regime change.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said of the call, “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly. It was a phone call.”

According to reports in The New York Times, Trump and Maduro discussed the possibility of a meeting. The Wall Street Journal reported that the conversation also touched on potential amnesty terms should Maduro step down.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that the U.S. has offered Maduro the option to leave Venezuela for Russia or another country.

Washington accuses Maduro — successor to late president Hugo Chávez — of leading the so-called “Cartel of the Suns,” offering a $50 million reward for his capture. Venezuela and its allies deny the cartel exists, while analysts say the term refers broadly to corruption among senior officials.

The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of last year’s presidential election.

Although Trump has not publicly threatened direct military action, he recently hinted that operations to stop drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”

Appeal to OPEC

Venezuela has appealed to OPEC for support in countering what it calls American “aggression.” Maduro’s letter to the group — read by Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez during a virtual meeting — accused Washington of attempting to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves “by military force.”

Since September, U.S. airstrikes targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed at least 83 people. The Trump administration has offered little evidence to support its claims, and legal experts have raised concerns about the legitimacy of the operations.

U.S. media reported Friday that in one September incident, the military carried out a second strike that killed survivors of an earlier attack. The Washington Post and CNN said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had issued a directive to “kill everybody,” though Trump said Sunday that Hegseth denied giving such an order.

“We’ll look into it,” Trump said. “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”

Allegations of ‘extrajudicial executions’

Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s legislature, said he met Sunday with families of Venezuelans killed in the strikes. While declining to comment on the reported Trump-Maduro call, he said that if such killings occurred without a declared war, they amounted to “murder or extrajudicial executions.”

The U.S. military buildup has included the deployment of the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Caribbean waters, along with frequent flights by American fighter jets and bombers near Venezuela’s coast.

Although six airlines have suspended service to Venezuela, Caracas airport operations appeared normal on Sunday.