Maduro dodges question on alleged US dock strike, says he is open to talks with Washington

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has expressed willingness to open dialogue with the US as he appeared to dodge a question on Washington’s recent military action on a dock.

“Wherever they want and whenever they want,” Maduro said of the idea of dialogue with the United States on drug trafficking, oil and migration in an interview on state TV.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, earlier this week, announced that the military launched a land attack on a docking facility in Venezuela targeting drug boats, a claim that has neither been confirmed nor denied by Caracas.

Asked point-blank if he confirmed or denied the attack, Maduro said, “This could be something we talk about in a few days.” The attack would amount to the first known land strike of the US military campaign against drug trafficking from Latin America.

US attack on a dock

Trump on Monday said the United States hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.

Trump would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, noting only that it was “along the shore.”

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro fueled rumours about the location of the attack, saying “Trump bombed a factory in Maracaibo,” where “they mix coca paste to make cocaine.”

That led some to speculate on social media that a fire at wholesale chemical distributor Primazol’s warehouses in Maracaibo may have been related to the attack.

Primazol chief Carlos Eduardo Siu denied those rumours, saying, “President Petro, not here – we neither package nor manufacture any kind of narcotics.”

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