Senior Trump official discusses migrants with Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP):

A senior Trump administration official travelled Friday to Venezuela to urge President Nicolás Maduro’s government to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States and release a handful of imprisoned Americans.

The visit by Richard Grenell, who US President Donald Trump appointed as an envoy for special missions, may come as a surprise to some Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against the authoritarian Venezuelan leader during his first term.

Venezuelan state television aired footage of Grenell and Maduro speaking in the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, the capital, and said the meeting had been requested by the US government.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America, previewed Grenell’s visit to Caracas in a conference call with journalists on Friday. He said Grenell, who served as US ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, was in Venezuela on a “very specific mission” that in no way detracts from the Trump administration’s goal of restoring democracy in the South American nation.

“I would urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed special envoy Ric Grenell’s message,” said Claver-Carone, himself a former top national security aide to Trump during his first administration. “Ultimately, there will be consequences otherwise.”

The visit comes less than a month after Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term, despite credible evidence that he lost last year’s election by a more than two-to-one margin. The US government, along with several other Western nations, does not recognise Maduro’s claim to victory.

Electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner of the July election hours after polls closed without providing detailed vote counts, unlike in previous elections.

Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 85 per cent of electronic voting machines, showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.

Spokespeople for González and his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Grenell’s visit.

The dispute over the election results sparked nationwide protests. More than 2,200 people were arrested during and after the demonstrations.

Among those detained are as many as 10 Americans who the government has linked to alleged plots to destabilise the country. One of them is a Navy SEAL.

None of the Americans has been declared wrongfully detained by the State Department, a designation that would give their cases more attention.

The Trump administration has taken a slew of actions to make good on promises to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest mass deportation effort in US history.

Those measures include the revocation earlier this week of a Biden administration decision that would have protected roughly 600,000 people from Venezuela from deportation, putting some at risk of being removed from the country in about two months.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that Trump had instructed Grenell to “identify a place and ensure that repatriation flights” carrying Venezuelans, including members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation, “land in Venezuela”. She said Trump also ordered Grenell to “ensure that all US detainees in Venezuela are returned home”.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their home country since 2013, when its economy unravelled and Maduro first took office. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean but, after the pandemic, migrants increasingly set their sights on the US.

Venezuelans’ desire for better living conditions and their rejection of Maduro and his policies are expected to keep pushing people to emigrate.