Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeated calls for peace and pledged \u201cabsolute loyalty\u201d to his people at a rally attended by thousands in Caracas, as tensions escalate over potential military action by the United States.<\/p>\n
The rally on Monday came as US President Donald Trump met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the \u201cnext steps\u201d on Venezuela, according to media reports.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Maduro, addressing a crowd waving Venezuelan flags outside the presidential palace in Caracas, said his country wanted peace, but only a peace \u201cwith sovereignty, equality and freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not want a slave\u2019s peace, nor the peace of colonies! Colony, never! Slaves, never!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela with a military buildup in the Caribbean, in what it calls an anti-drug trafficking campaign. Caracas says the actions are aimed at toppling Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n The US has amassed 15,000 troops in the region and deployed the world\u2019s largest aircraft carrier there, while also designating the Cartel de los Soles, which it describes as a drug trafficking cartel led by Maduro, as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organisation.<\/p>\n It has also carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people.<\/p>\n Experts say the assembled US firepower far outweighs what is necessary for a drug-trafficking operation, while\u00a0Caracas says the US is seeking regime change to take control of Venezuela\u2019s vast natural resources, including oil.<\/p>\n Maduro on Monday accused the US of waging a campaign of \u201cpsychological terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have endured 22 weeks of aggression that can be described as psychological terrorism,\u201d he said. \u201cThese 22 weeks have put us to the test, and the people of Venezuela have demonstrated their love for the homeland,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, confirmed on Sunday that he spoke to Maduro on the phone, but declined to give details, saying it did not go \u201cwell or badly\u201d.<\/p>\n The Reuters news agency, citing four sources familiar with the matter, reported on Monday that Trump offered Maduro safe passage out of Venezuela during the short call on November 21.<\/p>\n Maduro told Trump he was willing to leave Venezuela, provided he and his family members had full legal amnesty, including the removal of all US sanctions and the end of a flagship case he faces before the International Criminal Court (ICC), Reuters reported, citing three of the sources.<\/p>\n He also requested removal of sanctions for more than 100 Venezuelan government officials, many accused by the US of human rights abuses, drug trafficking or corruption, Reuters said.<\/p>\n Trump rejected most of his requests on the call, but told Maduro he had a week to leave Venezuela for the destination of his choice alongside his family members.<\/p>\n That safe passage expired on Friday, prompting Trump to declare on Saturday that Venezuela\u2019s airspace was closed, two of the sources told Reuters.<\/p>\n There was no immediate comment from the US or Venezuela about the report.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has said it does not recognise Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate president. Maduro claimed a re-election victory last year in a national ballot that the US and other Western governments dismissed as a sham, and which independent observers said the opposition won overwhelmingly.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Teresa Bo, reporting from Cucuta on the Colombia-Venezuela border, said Maduro\u2019s appearance at the Caracas rally came amid rumours that he had left the country following Trump\u2019s declaration about the closure of Venezuela\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n Bo said people crossing the Simon Bolivar bridge between the two countries were \u201cextremely concerned about the possibility of a military strike\u201d by the US on Venezuela.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the meantime, Venezuela continues to deploy military units across the country. They are protecting the capital, Caracas, specifically the main highway that connects to the airport and the coastal areas of Venezuela. We have seen the minister of defence, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, show off some military equipment, among them aerial defences [and] fighter jets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sources in Venezuela told Al Jazeera that they know the country\u2019s military is no match for the US, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why they are focusing on another strategy. And this would include irregular attacks, sabotage, using criminal groups, government supporters, and possibly guerrillas, among others,\u201d Bo said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main idea would be to generate chaos [and] anarchy, and that\u2019s something that concerns many people in the country. And there are some that say that even though they would like to see Maduro go, they are concerned that violence could take over their country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeated calls for peace and pledged \u201cabsolute loyalty\u201d to his people at a rally attended by thousands in Caracas, as tensions escalate over potential military action by the United States. The rally on Monday came as US President Donald Trump met with his national security team at the White House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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Trump-Maduro call<\/h2>\n
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