Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro said on Thursday he was open to talks with the US on drug trafficking and oil, after weeks of an escalating pressure campaign against his government.
In an interview with Venezuelan state TV, Maduro said he was ready for dialogue with the US “wherever they want and whenever they want”.
He also evaded a question about a statement by President Donald Trump that the US had hit a docking facility in Venezuela – the first such attack inside the country reportedly carried out by the CIA.
US forces have been hitting vessels they suspect of smuggling narcotics through the Caribbean and eastern Pacific for the past three months.
In total, there have been more than 30 strikes on vessels as part of the Trump administration’s “war on drugs” , with more than 110 people killed since the US carried out its first attack on a boat in international waters on 2 September.
The latest attack came on Wednesday when two boats alleged to be carrying drugs were struck, killing five people on board, according to the US military.
On Monday, Trump said the US had carried out a strike on a “dock area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats, causing a “major explosion”.
The blast was caused by a drone strike carried out by the CIA, according to CNN and the New York Times, which cited sources close to the matter. If confirmed, it would be the first known US operation inside Venezuela.
But Maduro was elusive in the interview. Asked if he could confirm or deny the attack, Maduro said “this could be something we talk about in a few days”.
As well as drug trafficking, Maduro also said he was open for talks on oil and migration.
In recent months, Trump has focused on fighting the influx of drugs – especially fentanyl and cocaine – into the US.
The US president has also doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture and has announced that he would designate the Maduro government as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).
Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Counternarcotic experts say that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking, acting as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.
Its neighbour, Colombia, is the world’s largest producer of cocaine but most of it is thought to enter the US by other routes, not via Venezuela.
Without providing evidence, Trump has accused Maduro of “emptying his prisons and insane asylums” and “forcing” its inmates to migrate to the US.
Close to eight million Venezuelans are estimated to have fled the country’s economic crisis and repression since 2013 – some heading for the US.
The US has also been cracking down on sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
US forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela on 10 December, saying it was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”. Venezuela described it as an act of “international piracy”.
Since then, the US has seized one more oil tanker and pursued a third.
The Trump administration has cast its operations against alleged drug boats as a non-international armed conflict against the alleged traffickers, but legal experts say they could be in violation of the laws governing such conflict.
The US has provided no evidence that the boats it has targeted are carrying drugs. But the US Southern Command again insisted this week that “intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and engaged in narco-trafficking”.
