Amid strained relations, the Maduro administration has indicated its willingness to possibly coordinate with Trump on immigration enforcement.
Richard Grenell, an envoy of US President Donald Trump, has finally arrived in Venezuela to meet President Maduro to discuss possible coordination for the president’s massive deportation agenda.
The two specific directives Grenell left for Venezuela with were outlined by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a news briefing on Friday.
“The first immediate directive is for Rick Grenell to identify a site where repatriation flights for members of Tren de Aragua, and of Venezuelan nationals who have violated laws in our nation, should be landing in Venezuela,” she said.
The second task will be to ensure these detainees are repatriated home to the United States.”
But the White House did clarify that it should not be seen as a US acceptance of election-3rd term’s legitimacy under the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
As Trump campaigned against Maduro through a “maximum pressure” strategy to dislodge the country’s leader throughout his first term from 2017 to 2021.
Even so, upon Trump’s assumption of office for the second time since January 20, questions have arisen regarding how his relationship with Maduro might evolve, notably considering cooperation needed for his “mass deportation” campaign
Leavitt suggested there might be little leniency at the White House regarding Venezuela’s acceptance of deportation flights. “We expect every nation on this planet to cooperate,” she said.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America, emerged in a conference call on Friday to express the same sentiments as he pushed Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that foreign governments were deliberately sending criminal elements of their native populations into the US.