(AFP) – US President Donald Trump sent an envoy to Venezuela Friday to warn leftist leader Nicolas Maduro to accept the unconditional return of deported Venezuelans or face consequences. Richard Grenell, an outspoken Trump ally who serves in a broad role as envoy for special missions, traveled to Caracas to speak to Maduro as the new Washington administration vows to push a hard line. State TV broadcast images Friday afternoon of Maduro receiving Grenell for a closed meeting at the presidential palace.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Grenell would demand that Caracas allow repatriation flights for members of the Tren de Aragua — the Venezuelan criminal gang Trump has designated a terrorist group. “President Trump expects Nicolas Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, US special envoy for Latin America, said separately.
Claver-Carone said Grenell was also demanding that “American hostages need to be released — immediately, unequivocally.” “All I would do on this call is urge the Maduro government — the Maduro regime — in Venezuela, to heed to Special Envoy Ric Grenell and to his demands and what he puts on the table, because ultimately, there will be consequences otherwise,” Claver-Carone told reporters. It was one of the first known meetings by the second Trump administration with a government it considers hostile.
Maduro was sworn in for a third presidential term on January 10 despite being accused of stealing the election last July. The opposition, and much of the international community, considers rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia the rightful winner. Claver-Carone said the talks did not imply any softening of the position on Maduro, whose previous term Washington had also considered illegitimate.
The Joe Biden administration had agreed to relax sanctions on oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and free elections. Venezuela freed 10 Americans in a swap. But Biden reimposed sanctions after Maduro did not follow through on democratic reforms. Maduro recently announced the capture of seven “mercenaries” and said two were US citizens — including a “senior FBI official.” The Foro Penal rights NGO says eight Americans are imprisoned in Venezuela, plus two people of unknown nationalities who had resided in the United States.
“This is not a quid pro quo, is not a negotiation in exchange for anything. President Trump himself has made very clear we don’t need Venezuelan oil,” Claver-Carone said. Venezuela has the world’s biggest known oil reserves, but production is stunted and GDP has dropped 80 percent in a decade on Maduro’s watch — prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to flee.
– Top priority for Trump – Trump has made the deportation of undocumented people in the United States a top priority. During his campaign, he described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the United States. Since his return to the White House, he has pressed countries to take back deportees — a top priority for Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he starts a five-nation tour of Latin America on Saturday.
In his first week back in office, Trump vowed crushing tariffs on Colombia, a longstanding US ally, after its president called for more humane treatment of repatriated citizens. The Trump administration quickly ended protections from deportation for more than 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States under a special status. The Biden administration had allowed them to stay due to fears for their safety if they return to Venezuela.
Venezuela’s opposition decried the lifting of the protections, saying the vast majority of Venezuelans in the United States were “honest and hard-working” and forced to flee by Maduro. Trump also signed a law making it easier to detain migrants who commit crimes, naming it after 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student murdered by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested but released twice.
– Patrick Fort with Shaun Tandon in Washington
© 2024 AFP
