'We're Ready': Maduro's Rare Conciliatory Message To US Days Before Being Captured

Just days before his dramatic capture by US forces, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signalled a surprising openness to engage in dialogue with Washington on drug enforcement, delivering a rare conciliatory message toward the United States.

Less than 48 hours after the interview aired, Maduro and his wife were captured in a sudden US operation, abruptly ending his grip on power and casting his final public statements in an entirely new light.

Speaking in a taped interview broadcast Thursday on state television channel teleSUR, Maduro said Washington was aware of his openness. “The US 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.

The interview, conducted by Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, took place amid sustained pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration, which included strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, as well as an expanded US naval presence off Venezuela’s coast.

According to news agency Associated Press, Maduro declined to comment on reports of a covert ground attack on a Venezuelan docking facility last month, which some media outlets attributed to the CIA. Trump later appeared to confirm the strike, saying the United States had destroyed a key facility used for shipping drugs. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard,” Trump said in a separate interview.

Despite accusing Washington of trying to impose itself “through threats, intimidation and force,” Maduro suggested there was room for cooperation, particularly in drug enforcement and energy. According to a translation of the interview by the news agency, he said Venezuela was open to US investment in its oil sector.

“If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for US investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it, and however they want it,” Maduro said, referring to the American energy company’s limited operations in the country.

Maduro, who has long denied any links to the drug trade, insisted the United States had “fabricated” a campaign against him, while portraying himself as a leader seeking peace. “The US people should know that here they have a friendly, peaceful people, and they also have a friendly government,” he said, according to the English-language version of the interview published by teleSUR.