US president Donald Trump says he has called off plans for further attacks on Venezuela, almost a week after US forces attacked the South American nation.
Citing “co-operation” by the Chavista regime in the country left in place after Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was seized by US special forces in a raid last Saturday, Mr Trump said he had “cancelled the previously expected second wave of attacks” in a social media post on Friday.
Until now, he had kept in place the threat of further strikes if the Venezuelan government did not comply with his demands.
Mr Trump also welcomed the release of political prisoners by the government of new interim president Delcy Rodríguez. He said the two administrations “are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better and more modern form, the oil and gas infrastructure”.
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But he said the US armada in place off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast would remain “for safety and security purposes”.
Mr Trump and senior officials say the military presence is to ensure Venezuela complies with their demands, such as tackling drug trafficking, expelling foreign forces from its territory and opening up the country’s vast oil and gas reserves to US companies.
A fleet of tankers operated by US oil giant Chevron is already loading up with Venezuelan crude for shipment back to the US after Mr Trump said the country will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to Washington, with the US to decide on how the revenue is spent.
Venezuelan oil authorities have sought to frame the transfer as a commercial negotiation after Ms Rodríguez said the country was “open to energy relations where all parties benefit”.
In Venezuela, an estimated 800 political prisoners have been released as part of the government’s efforts to de-escalate tensions with Washington.
The move comes as residents in the capital report a new campaign of intimidation by regime-linked militias following the US raid. Venezuela’s hardline interior minister Diosdado Cabello said at least 100 people had been killed in the strikes.
Cuba has confirmed that 32 of its security personnel were among the dead.
Mr Trump said the release of political prisoners “is a very important and smart gesture”. He also said he expected to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week.
He has previously dismissed her as lacking “respect” within Venezuela to justify Washington’s decision to sideline her from the country’s post-Maduro political set-up.
Mr Trump earlier this week said he would meet his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro at the White House in the “near future” after the two leaders had a phone call aimed at de-escalating mounting tensions between them.
Earlier in the week, the US president threatened a military strike on Colombia and warned Mr Petro, whom he labelled a drug dealer, to “watch his ass”. In response, the Colombian president vowed to take up arms if attacked.
In an interview with El País newspaper, Mr Petro said Mr Trump told him he had been considering “doing some bad things to Colombia” and that he was afraid he would be seized like Mr Maduro.
But even as he pulled back for menacing Colombia, Mr Trump once again threatened to carry out military strikes on Mexico.
“We are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels,” he told Fox News on Thursday night. “The cartels are running Mexico.”
