Venezuela's Maduro ready to hold 'serious' talks with US
The comments echo previous statements by Maduro about his willingness to engage in dialogue even as the US has escalated pressure
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has said in a New Year's interview that his country is willing to receive US investment in its oil sector, coordinate in the fight against drug trafficking and hold serious talks with the United States.
"We must start to speak seriously, with the facts in hand," Maduro said in his annual interview with a Spanish journalist, originally published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada and broadcast on Venezuelan state television on New Year's Day.
"If they want to speak seriously about an agreement to battle drug trafficking, we are ready. If they want Venezuela’s oil, Venezuela is ready to accept US investments like those of Chevron when, where, and how they want to make them."
The comments echo previous statements by Maduro about his willingness to dialogue with Donald Trump, even as the US president has escalated pressure on Maduro, including expanded sanctions, a ramped-up US military presence in the region, and more than two dozen strikes on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
‘The perfect model’
Maduro said the pressure is an effort to gain control of Venezuela's vast natural resources.
"What is the goal of the United States? They've said it," Maduro said in the interview.
"To grab all the oil of Venezuela, the gold, the rare earths."
Trump this week said US forces hit a dock in Venezuela used for loading drugs, but gave no details of its location.
Maduro did not confirm the attack in the interview but said he may discuss the issue in the coming days.
"What I can say is that our national defensive system, which combines popular, military, and police forces, has guaranteed and will guarantee territorial integrity and the peace of the country," Maduro said.
A blog tied to Venezuela's ruling party said this week the location of the attack was a thin spit of coast on the La Guajira peninsula.
Maduro said cocaine smuggled through the region originates in neighbouring Colombia and that Venezuela has "the perfect model" to combat drug trafficking.