The Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, has urged Donald Trump to abandon his “illegal warmongering” and begin “serious talks” with his administration as mystery continued to surround a purported pre-Christmas CIA airstrike on the South American country.
Speaking during an hour-long TV interview, Maduro declined to confirm reports of the apparent US attack, which would be the first on Venezuelan soil since Trump began his five-month campaign of military pressure in August.
Maduro’s pre-recorded interview came after Trump said on Monday that the US had hit a docking facility that served Venezuelan drug-trafficking boats last month. US media reports have claimed the CIA was behind the drone strike.
If confirmed, the first strike on land would mark a new phase in a campaign that has involved the deployment of a huge US naval fleet, airstrikes on alleged drug traffickers and a “total blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers, the seizure of two vessels and the pursuit of a third.
