U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday that he had spoken with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but refused to give details of the conversation that took place amid escalating tensions in the Caribbean.
“The answer is yes,” Trump said when asked if he had spoken with Maduro while talking to the press aboard Air Force One on his way back to the U.S. capital.
Trump confirms called with Maduro
The president avoided elaborating on the details: “I don’t want to comment on the matter”.
The conversation between the two leaders reportedly took place last week to arrange a possible meeting between the two in the United States, The New York Times reported Friday based on anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The call, which included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, did not result in concrete plans for the meeting, added the New York newspaper report, which also did not share further details about what was discussed between the two leaders.
Tension between the U.S. and Venezuela has escalated in recent days and this Saturday Trump warned pilots and airlines to consider Venezuelan airspace and its surroundings “closed.”
Questioned about whether the alert meant an imminent attack on Venezuelan soil, the president refused to talk about his message shared on his social network Truth Social.
In contrast, Trump spent several minutes defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is in the eye of the storm for allegedly ordering to “kill all” the occupants of an alleged drug boat, according to a Washington Post report.
According to the newspaper, which quoted two sources with direct knowledge of the operation, after the first missile hit the ship the commanders noticed two crew members clinging to wreckage of the vessel.
The commander in charge of the operation then ordered a second attack to carry out the instructions of Hegseth, who had ordered to “kill everyone” on the ship.
“(Hegseth) said he didn’t order that and I believe him,” Trump said.
Hegseth has called the newspaper’s reporting “fake news,” a recurrent expression in the White House to refer to negative information.
But this time he will have to explain to a U.S. Senate committee about the alleged attack described by Democratic lawmakers as a “war crime.”
Filed under: Trump called Maduro
With information from EFE
