WASHINGTON: The United States has offered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the chance to leave his country for Russia or elsewhere, a Republican senator said Sunday, amid heightened fears of imminent US military action.
President Donald Trump sharply escalated his threats against Venezuela by warning Saturday that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed,” while the US military maintains a significant presence in the region.
Though Trump has not publicly threatened to use force against Maduro, he said in recent days that efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”
Maduro has said he views the US military presence in the Caribbean as a precursor to regime change.
“By the way, we gave Maduro an opportunity to leave. We said he could leave and go to Russia or he could go to another country,” Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” talk show.
