The president of the United States, Donald Trump, will continue destroying alleged drug boats in the Caribbean until Nicolás Maduro surrenders. This was stated by the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in an interview published this Tuesday.
Since September, a strong US military deployment has destroyed around twenty boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, near Venezuela and Colombia, killing more than 80 suspected narcoterrorists.
“(Trump) wants to keep blowing up ships until Maduro gives up. And people much smarter than me in that regard say they will,” Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
According to the magazine, the statements by Trump’s right-hand man appear to “contradict the government’s official position that blowing up ships is a drug interdiction issue, not the search for a regime change” in Venezuela.
Donald Trump’s administration accuses Maduro of leading the drug trafficking network Cartel de los Soles and offers a reward of up to $50 million for information leading to the capture of the socialist leader.
Trump also promised that attacks against drug trafficking in Venezuelan territory will soon begin, while Maduro calls on his citizens to unite against US threats and enlist in citizen militias.
Despite the tension, Trump and Maduro held a telephone conversation in November of which no details have emerged.
