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Maduro calls for new beginning in bilateral ties with US
Maduro’s government issued a statement after he met with Richard Grenell to discuss the deportation of migrants and criminals from the United States to Venezuela, a key demand of Trump, AFP reported.
Six Americans detained in Venezuela were also released on Friday and returned to the United States with Trump’s special envoy.
The six men, who were not identified, were photographed smiling on a plane alongside Grenell.
It is unclear exactly how many Americans were being held by Venezuela, but Venezuelan officials have spoken publicly of at least nine.
Venezuela has accused most of them of terrorism and says some were high-level “mercenaries.”
Grenell and Maduro met at the Miraflores presidential palace in one of the first known meetings by the second Trump administration with a government it considers hostile.
However, Maduro stressed the meeting had “zero agenda,” and that he sought a “new beginning in bilateral relations” with the United States, according to a statement from the Venezuelan government.
“There are things where we’ve reached initial deals and when they are complied with, new issues will open, hopefully new deals for the good of the two countries and the region,” Maduro said, adding that he would be looking to see if what had been discussed with Grenell was reflected in what is communicated by the US about the meeting.
“We say to President Donald Trump: we have taken a first step. Hopefully it can be sustained, we want to sustain it,” Maduro said later during a speech.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Grenell would demand Caracas allow repatriation flights for members of the Tren de Aragua – the Venezuelan criminal gang Trump has designated a terrorist group.
“President Trump expects Nicolas Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, US special envoy for Latin America, said separately.
According to Caracas, the Maduro-Grenell meeting was held in “mutual respect” and various issues were discussed including migration and the “negative impact of economic sanctions.”
The government statement also expressed Venezuela’s “willingness to maintain open diplomatic channels.”
Claver-Carone said the talks did not imply any softening of the position on Maduro, whose previous term Washington had also considered illegitimate.