【Text by Observer Net, Liu Bai】With the U.S. military massing in the Caribbean Sea and the situation in Venezuela being complicated, the phone call between the heads of state of the U.S. and Venezuela has drawn widespread attention.

The U.S. "Miami Herald" on November 30 cited a source with knowledge of the matter, stating that President Trump demanded President Maduro of Venezuela to resign and leave immediately during the call, while promising a safe passage for Maduro and his core family members. Maduro proposed two conditions: first, retaining control over the Venezuelan military, and second, seeking global criminal immunity for himself and his group, which was rejected by the U.S. The negotiations then broke down.

According to the sources, the message conveyed by the U.S. to Maduro was very direct: only if he resigned immediately would he, his wife Silvia Flores, and his son be granted a safe passage.

A source said that this call was the last attempt to avoid an outbreak of conflict, but it got stuck on three issues:

"First, Maduro requested global amnesty for any crimes committed by himself and his group, which was rejected."

"Second, they (Maduro) demanded to retain control over the military, similar to the situation in Nicaragua when Violeta Chamorro took power in 1991. In exchange, they would allow free elections."

The source added that this arrangement is similar to the "Cuban model," where the Ortega brothers hold real power behind the scenes, eventually helping them return to government. The U.S. also rejected this proposal.

After the 1990 election, the opposition leader of Nicaragua, Violeta Chamorro, defeated the incumbent president, Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista Front, and officially took office in 1991.

However, Chamorro's assumption of power was not a complete takeover: although the Sandinista Front lost the election, it still firmly controlled the army, police, and other key security departments; the Chamorro government had to make a compromise with the Sandinista Front to avoid a restart of the civil war: allowing them to retain some key powers, forming a balance where the "apparent elected government rules, while the former regime controls the security departments."

Through its control over the army and grassroots organizations, the Sandinista Front never exited the political stage, continuously influencing national decision-making. Eventually, Ortega was re-elected as president of Nicaragua in 2007, and has been re-elected multiple times since then.

According to the sources, apart from the above two points, the third issue was time: Trump insisted that Maduro resign immediately, but Maduro refused.

Thus, this phone call mediated by Brazil, Qatar, and Turkey came to an end.

On November 29, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, after Trump announced the closure of all airspace over Venezuela and surrounding areas, people visited military aircraft at an aviation exhibition. IC Photo

It is reported that after Trump declared the closure of all airspace over Venezuela and surrounding areas on the 29th, the Maduro government tried to contact Washington again, but did not receive a response.

Trump's statement was generally seen as a signal of impending attack, further intensifying the already tense standoff.

In the warning to "airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and human traffickers" about closing the airspace, Trump gave no details about the action, but emphasized that this directive required immediate attention.

Currently, the U.S. military posture toward Venezuela is rapidly escalating, and concerns about conflict in the Caribbean are surging.

At the time of the call, more and more signs indicated that the Trump administration was preparing to take stronger actions against the "drug trafficking groups" in Venezuela, which the U.S. accuses of being controlled by Maduro and other senior officials.

Since September, the U.S. government has been deploying military forces to the Caribbean Sea and surrounding waters of Latin America under the pretext of "combating drug trafficking." On November 1, the U.S. Southern Command stated that the U.S. Marines completed a amphibious landing exercise near Venezuela in Puerto Rico to support the U.S. so-called "drug trafficking" operations.

The "Wall Street Journal" on October 31 cited anonymous U.S. officials who revealed that the Trump administration had selected potential targets within the anti-drug framework to target Venezuela, including military facilities used for drug smuggling. According to one official, potential targets include ports and airports controlled by the military, which are suspected to be used for drug smuggling, including naval facilities and airstrips.

On November 27, Trump threatened that U.S. military operations would soon expand from the Caribbean Sea to the territory of Venezuela. In a call with troops on Thanksgiving, he said that the U.S. military would "very quickly" begin ground operations aimed at dismantling what he called the Venezuelan drug network.

Trump said that since September 1, U.S. military actions in the Caribbean Sea have destroyed more than 20 ships, resulting in the deaths of more than 80 people. He claimed that the U.S. had blocked "85%" of maritime drug trafficking. He said that Venezuelan gangs were sending "poison" northward, taking the lives of "thousands of people" each year.

Legally, the U.S. government is also taking action. The U.S. Department of State formally designated the "Sun Cartel" drug trafficking group as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization," and placed Maduro, Venezuela's Interior Minister Carvajal, and Defense Minister Lopez on the same legal list as leaders of Al-Qaeda and "ISIS."

After completing the legal actions, the Trump administration can launch military operations without additional approval from Congress.

Analysts say that this measure is broad in scope. Since the U.S. believes that the "Sun Cartel" operates within the Venezuelan government, this accusation actually makes the Maduro government part of a terrorist network. Experts point out that the Trump administration can use the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which has been the legal basis for most U.S. counter-terrorism actions over the past two decades.

U.S. Defense Secretary Esper said that this designation "opens up many new options." Trump also hinted that this could clear the way to strike at Venezuelan assets and infrastructure, but he also said that he remains willing to negotiate.

The Maduro government strongly condemned this move, calling it a false excuse for foreign interference, and insisting that the so-called "Sun Cartel" is a fabrication by the United States.

"For the Venezuelan government, wasting precious governance time responding to these slanders and defamation is undoubtedly foolish," the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry stated, emphasizing that the Venezuelan people remain "united" and are preparing to celebrate Christmas.

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Original: toutiao.com/article/7578705740047680040/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.