WASHINGTON, December 2. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump, in a November 21 phone conversation, demanded that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro leave his country within a week, Reuters reported.
According to its sources, the leaders’ conversation lasted less than 15 minutes. During it, Trump "told Maduro he had a week to leave Venezuela for the destination of his choice alongside his family members." As clarified in the report, this deadline expired on Friday, November 28. In this regard, on November 29, Trump wrote on the social network Truth Social that he had closed the airspace over Venezuela, stating that all "airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers" should consider the airspace over and around Venezuela "closed in its entirety,"
According to the agency, Maduro, in the conversation with Trump, expressed a willingness to leave the country with family members "provided he and his family members had full legal amnesty, including the removal of all US sanctions and the end of a flagship case he faces before the International Criminal Court," as well as the lifting of US sanctions against 100 Venezuelan officials. Furthermore, he emphasized that Venezuela's transitional government until new elections should be headed by the country's Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Trump, according to the sources, "rejected most" of Maduro's demands. Reuters reported that negotiations regarding the possibility of Maduro leaving Venezuela may continue.
On November 30, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he had held a phone conversation with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Earlier, on November 29, US President Donald Trump announced the airspace over Venezuela being closed. He later clarified that his statement should not be taken as a sign of the possibility of US strikes on the country's terriotry.
Washington has accused Caracas of not doing enough to combat drug smuggling. Under this pretext, the US deployed large forces to the Caribbean. A strike group of US warships led by the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, o nuclear-powered submarine, and more than 16,000 troops have reportedly been deployed by the United States to the Caribbean. Since September, the US has destroyed at least 20 boats and eliminated more than 80 people allegedly involved in drug trafficking from Venezuela.
The US media have repeatedly reported that the United States may soon strike Venezuela. On November 27, Trump said that Washington would very soon begin to fight drug trafficking from Venezuela on land, but did not elaborate.