President Donald Trump has said he will talk at some point to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, while declining to rule out putting US boots on the ground in the Latin American nation.
Trump's comments came on Monday as a huge US military buildup off the coast of Venezuela stokes tensions, with Washington accusing Maduro of leading a "terrorist" drug cartel.
"At a certain period of time, I'll be talking to him," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, while adding that Maduro "has not been good to the United States."
Asked if he would rule out US troops on the ground in Venezuela, Trump replied: "No, I don't rule out that, I don't rule out anything."
"We just have to take care of Venezuela," he added. "They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons."
On Sunday, the US deployed the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, escalating the already high tensions.
His remarks also followed Washington’s move to designate the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), granting broader legal authority for US agencies to target entities linked to Maduro, whom Trump accuses of leading the network.
