The Japan Times - Trump confirms call with Maduro, Caracas slams US maneuvers

The United States is piling the pressure on Venezuela, with a major military buildup in the Caribbean, the designation of an alleged drug cartel run by Maduro as a terrorist group, and an ominous warning from Trump that Venezuelan airspace is "closed."

Washington says the aim of the military deployment launched in September is to curb drug trafficking in the region, but Caracas insists regime change is the ultimate goal.

"I wouldn't say it went well or badly. It was a phone call," Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One.

The New York Times reported Friday that Trump and Maduro had discussed a possible meeting, while The Wall Street Journal said Saturday that the conversation also included conditions of amnesty if Maduro were to step down.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" talk show that the United States has offered Maduro the chance to leave his country for Russia or elsewhere.

The United States accuses Maduro, the political heir to Venezuela's late leftist leader Hugo Chavez, of heading the "Cartel of the Suns" and has issued a $50 million reward for his capture.

But Venezuela and countries that support it insist no such organization even exists.

Several Venezuela experts say what Washington calls the Cartel of the Suns refers to the corruption of senior officials by criminal gangs.

The United States also does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of last year's presidential election.

Though Trump has not publicly threatened to use force against Maduro, he said in recent days that efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking "by land" would begin "very soon."

- Aid from OPEC? -

Venezuela says it has requested assistance from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which it is a member, to help "stop this (American) aggression, which is being readied with more and more force."

The request came in a letter from Maduro to the group, read by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela's oil minister, during a virtual meeting of OPEC ministers.

Washington "is trying to seize Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the biggest in the world, by using military force," Maduro wrote in the letter.

Since September, US air strikes have targeted alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people.

Trump's administration has offered no concrete evidence to back up the allegations behind its campaign, and numerous experts have questioned the legality of the operations.

US media reported Friday that in one strike in September, the US military conducted a follow-up strike that killed survivors of an initial attack.

The Washington Post and CNN said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had issued a directive to "kill everybody," but Trump said Sunday that Hegseth had denied giving such an order.

"We'll look into it, but no, I wouldn't have wanted that -- not a second strike," Trump told reporters. "Pete said he did not order the death of those two men."

- 'Extrajudicial executions' -

The head of Venezuela's legislature, Jorge Rodriguez, said he met Sunday with relatives of Venezuelans killed in the strikes.

He would not comment on a possible Trump-Maduro call.

But when asked about the report about the Hegseth order, he said: "If a war had been declared and led to such killings, we would be talking about war crimes."

"Given that no war has been declared, what happened...can only be characterized as murder or extrajudicial executions," he added.

The steady US military buildup has seen the world's largest aircraft carrier deployed to Caribbean waters, while American fighter jets and bombers have repeatedly flown off the Venezuelan coast in recent days.

Six airlines have canceled services to Venezuela, but on Sunday, the airport in Caracas was functioning as usual.

T.Kobayashi--JT