Maduro suggests Venezuela is open to talks with US despite military attacks

Tensions between Caracas and Washington flared this week after US President Donald Trump claimed American forces destroyed a Venezuelan dock used by alleged drug traffickers. President Nicolas Maduro did not confirm, but suggested Venezuela remained willing to engage with the US despite weeks of escalating military pressure in the region.

President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday dodged a question about an alleged US attack on a dock in Venezuela but said he was open to cooperation with Washington after weeks of American military pressure.

“Wherever they want and whenever they want,” Maduro said of the idea of dialogue with the United States on drug trafficking, oil and migration in an interview on state TV.

To date, Maduro has not confirmed a US land attack on a docking facility in his country that allegedly targeted drug boats, according to comments made on Monday by US President Donald Trump.

Asked point-blank whether he confirmed or denied the attack, Maduro said: “This could be something we talk about in a few days.”

The attack would amount to the first known land strike of the US military campaign against drug trafficking from Latin America.

Trump said on Monday that the United States had hit and destroyed a docking area used by alleged Venezuelan drug boats.

He declined to say whether it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, noting only that it was “along the shore”.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area — it’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”

For weeks, Trump has threatened ground strikes on drug cartels in the region, saying they would start “soon”, but this is the first apparent example.

US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers.

The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, however, prompting debate about the legality of these operations.

International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings, a charge that Washington denies.