pressure
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump held talks on Monday with top advisers to discuss the pressure campaign on Venezuela, among other topics, a senior U.S. official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Oval Office meeting included senior members of Trump’s national security team. No details of the talks were immediately available.
The session came as Trump ratchets up pressure on Venezuela over what the U.S. says are drug shipments emanating from that country.
On Saturday, Trump said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” but gave no further details, stirring anxiety and confusion in Caracas.
Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. considers an illegitimate leader, but Trump declined to provide details of the conversation.
The Trump administration has been weighing Venezuela-related options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans. Maduro has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.
U.S. forces in the region have focused on counter-narcotics operations, even though the assembled firepower far outweighs what is necessary for them. U.S. troops have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people.
Reports of looming action have proliferated in recent weeks as the U.S. military has deployed forces to the Caribbean amid worsening relations with Venezuela.
US wants our oil, Maduro tells OPEC
Meanwhile, in what appeared to be a further ratcheting up of tensions, Maduro wrote to OPEC accusing the US of seeking to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves through force, while the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly accused the US of “murder” regarding recent military strikes on alleged drug boats.
In a letter to the secretary general of OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais, dated November 30, Maduro accused the US of making “constant and repeating express threats” toward his country, in a move that he said “seriously endangers the stability of Venezuelan oil production and the international market.”
Venezuela’s oil reserves are thought to be among the largest in the world.
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil Pinto posted the letter to OPEC on Telegram, alongside a vow that Venezuela would “remain firm in defending its natural energy resources.”
(Reuters)