Donald Trump offered to talk with Nicolas Maduro. The Venezuelan dictator welcomed the conversation.
Be careful what you wish for.
The New York Times reported late Saturday that the conversation took place shortly after that exchange, and according to their sources, it went relatively well. Their sources claimed that Maduro and Trump agreed to keep the lines of communication open and even spoke of a visit by the Venezuelan dictator to the US in the near future:
President Trump spoke by phone last week with Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, and discussed a possible meeting between them, multiple people with knowledge of the matter said, even as the United States continues to threaten military action against Venezuela.
The conversation took place late in the week, two of the people said. It included a discussion about a possible meeting between the two men in the United States, according to the people with knowledge of the matter, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. There are no plans at the moment for such a meeting, one of the people said.
The phone call, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came days before a State Department designation of Mr. Maduro as the leader of what the administration considers a foreign terrorist organization, the Cartel de los Soles, came into effect.
The Miami Herald's sources relate something very, very different. Trump invited Maduro to take a vacation, all right, but Trump strongly suggested something more ... permanent:
As Washington prepares to launch land attacks inside Venezuela, a long-awaited phone call between the White House and Caracas aimed at defusing the crisis carried a blunt message for strongman Nicolás Maduro: You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now, sources familiar with the exchange told the Miami Herald.
The call — which The New York Times reported took place last week — quickly reached an impasse as it became clear that the two sides’ positions were far apart. Washington demanded that Maduro and his top allies leave Venezuela immediately to allow the restoration of democratic rule, while regime leaders proposed handing political control to the opposition but retaining command of the armed forces.
According to the sources, the U.S. message to Maduro was direct: Safe passage would be guaranteed for him, his wife Cilia Flores, and his son only if he agreed to resign right away.
The call-out to the NYT is rather amusing in context. It's tough to see it as anything other than shaming the Gray Lady for getting the call all wrong. The NYT's report concludes by claiming the call "could be the beginning of an effort to create an off-ramp from an escalating use of force." It sound more like an ultimatum for Maduro to find his own off-ramp out of the presidente for life career that he inherited from Hugo Chavez.
According to the Herald, Maduro had offered concessions to Trump in exchange for dialing down the military pressure. He wanted "global amnesty" for himself and his family, plus Maduro wanted to retain control of the military. In exchange, Maduro would allow free and fair elections and agree to abide by the results. Trump rejected every part of the offer, and instead told Maduro that he would only guarantee his safety on exiting to a country willing to take him and his family – and only if Maduro got out ASAP.
That is very different than the picture painted by the Paper Of Record. Still, it's possible that the NYT got the story correct and that the Herald botched it. Which take is more accurate? The New York Post connects the post-conversation dots and reaches its own conclusions:
After the phone call between Trump and Maduro failed to reach a detente, the US president announced he was closing the airspace around the South American country, as America’s largest warship, the USS Gerald F. Ford — and a Marine expeditionary unit, capable of amphibious invasion — float offshore.
Trump also warned over the weekend that military operations inside Venezuela could begin “very soon.”
That's all the evidence one needs to figure out how that phone call went. The only effort to find an "off ramp" is the one that Trump offered to Maduro to get the hell out of Caracas.
Plus, as the NYT was reporting on this call as some sort of rapprochement, Trump posted this to Truth Social:
Will Trump initiate military action? Ordinarily, one would say that Trump would have to go to Congress to take action against a dictator who threatens the security and interests of the US. However, Barack Obama blew that out of the water with his 2011 military operations against Moammar Qaddafi in Libya, which resulted in the decapitation of the Libyan government. Obama never even bothered to report to Congress after that action, let alone seek approval beforehand, based on Samantha Power's "responsibility to protect" doctrine, and about which Hillary Clinton later bragged: "We came, we saw, he died."
Still, Trump may be using this as a way to put pressure on Maduro to take his offer before Trump goes the full Michael Corleone. At least his offer wasn't "nothing," and Maduro knows it. So does the NYT, even if they're reluctant to report it. Trump is pursuing the "Donroe Doctrine" in this confrontation ... emphasis on the don.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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