Maduro Scrambles To Open Talks With U.S. After Venezuela Strike

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro is pleading for talks with the U.S. after tanker seizures and a U.S. strike, as President Donald Trump continues to ratchet up pressure on the socialist regime.

Maduro is offering U.S. access to Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves and a renewed dialogue on drug trafficking, Reuters reports. In remarks on state television, he specifically floated reopening the door to  Chevron oil investment, and urged Trump to “speak seriously” about cooperating to “battle” narcotics trafficking.

Venezuela is a hub for multiple vicious cartels that ship their product to the U.S., including Tren de Aragua and the Maduro-tied Cartel de los Soles.

“To the people of the United States I say what I have always said, Venezuela is a brother country… a friendly government,” Maduro said during his address. “We must start to speak seriously, with the facts in hand. The U.S. government knows that, because we have said it a lot to their interlocutors, that if they want to speak seriously about the agreement to battle drug trafficking, we are ready to do that.”

“If they want Venezuela’s oil, Venezuela is ready to accept U.S. investments like those of Chevron, when, where and how they want to make them,” Maduro said.

The Trump administration has seized multiple oil tankers from the nation as well as striking alleged cartel boats in the southern Caribbean sea and Pacific Ocean near Venezuela. Trump has said the dictator is “illegitimate” and has floated toppling the ruler.

So far, the U.S. has killed over 100 alleged traffickers since the operations in the Caribbean began in September.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.