Maduro Says He's Ready to Play 'Let's Make a Deal'

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Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro says that he's willing to come to terms with President Trump if the U.S. ends its military pressure campaign in an interview with socialist academic and journalist (but I repeat myself) Ignacio Ramonet.

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"The U.S. government knows, because we’ve told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we’re ready," he said. "If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it."

Trump has made multiple demands that Maduro depart, going back to the beginning of the pressure campaign in November, for instance, on December 23:

Trump, taking reporter questions at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Monday evening, was directly asked if his administration's ultimate goal in Venezuela is to force Maduro from power.

"Well, I think it probably would. I can't tell him. That's up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we're going to find out," Trump said.

At the same time, Trump issued a warning to Maduro.

"He can do whatever he wants, it’s alright, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it'll be the last time he's ever able to play tough," Trump said.

The climb down for Trump to accept a deal that left Maduro in power would lead to the revival of the Democrats' TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) slogan. Beyond that, the current National Defense Strategy (see With the New U.S. National Security Strategy, Trump Revives Monroe Doctrine – RedState) doesn't allow for a rogue state, beholden to Russia, China, and Iran, to operate at a key strategic maritime chokepoint in our hemisphere. Even as U.S. companies have had property confiscated and been driven from Venezuela, Venezuela has entered into a major agreement with China to extract oil.

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As I note in Trump's Campaign Against Venezuela Is Jumpstarting the Monroe Doctrine – RedState, Venezuela is nearly a Chinese colony.

Nearly 600,000 Chinese nationals reside in Venezuela; probably less than 10 percent of that number are citizens. Most are relatively new arrivals. The Chinese population of Venezuela, as of their 2011 census, was 15,358. In 14 years, over 500,000 Chinese have appeared in Venezuela. That is a lot of laundries and restaurants. Down at the FBI office, that is what is known as a clue.

Venezuela is also an active participant in China's Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to secure China's dominance in raw materials and trade routes. Venezuela has received over $60 billion in Chinese infrastructure and energy loans (GDP of Venezuela = $82.77 billion). China provides most of Venezuela's military equipment. 

And, not to put too fine a point on it, China is not a "strategic competitor," it is an enemy nation with which warfare has not yet entered the kinetic stage; see There's No Hiding It; China's Actions Say It's Planning a Preemptive Attack on the US – RedState.

Further making Maduro's offer an early contender for the 2026 Too-Little-Too-Late Award is his belief that any deal on "drug trafficking" can be finessed, as Maduro has been sanctioned and is under federal indictment as the head of a narcotics cartel that is also the subject of sanctions and federal indictments.

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Maduro framing his deal as the evil norteamericanos shaking down Venezuela for its oil is also less than helpful. President Trump has made it clear that he demands the return of all U.S.-owned businesses and property nationalized by Hugo Chavez as well as Maduro.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday assailed his White House predecessors for not pushing back against Venezuela earlier and stated that his intention is "getting land, oil rights, whatever we had" returned by the government in Caracas.

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said: "They took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn't watching. But they're not going to do that again."

"We want it back," he added. "They took our oil rights — we had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back."

The list includes, but is not limited to:

Exxon Mobil—2007—oil extraction.

Conoco Phillips—2007—oil extraction.

Halliburton—2009—oil operations.

Cargill—2009—rice processing.

Owens Illinois—2010—glass.

Clorox—2014—consumer goods. 

General Motors—2017—auto manufacturing. 

Kellogg’s—2018)—cereals.

Goodyear—2018—tires.

Also in play is Maduro's bald-faced grab for oil-rich areas that are internationally recognized as belonging to Guyana but which Maduro claims for Venezuela; see Venezuela Signals It May Invade Guyana to Enforce Annexation Referendum – RedState.

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Quite honestly, any deal that leaves Maduro and his cronies in power would have to be declared a defeat. If we can't force Maduro out and clear the decks for the return of 600,000 Venezuelans currently in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status, we can declare our National Defense Strategy a farce and concede the sun has set on Pax Americana.

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