DORAL, Fla. — Nicolás Maduro recently accused President Donald Trump of devising a war that he will avoid. An expert said this could be indicative of his intention to flee from Venezuela.
Moises I. Benhabib is the director of the World Affairs Council of Miami, a Miami-based nonprofit organization that focuses on education and civil discussion.
“It’s all an indication for him to leave the country,” said Benhabib, who served for nearly 8 years in the U.S. State Department.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez said Maduro has been identified as the head of the Cartel De Los Soles, a narcotrafficking organization that includes Venezuelan military generals.
“We have a $50 million bounty on his head,” Gimenez said.
Since September, the Trump administration has announced launching 10 U.S. military strikes on narcotraffickers in the southern Caribbean that have killed 43 people.
Sen. Lindsey Graham told CBS News that there will be a congressional briefing after Trump returns from Asia about “a potential expanding from the sea to the land.”
On Monday, several Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew near Venezuela in the latest U.S. show of force in the area, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. The Pentagon launched the USS Gerald R. Ford and docked the USS Gravely on Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago.
Also on Monday, Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, announced during a televised address that Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar had joined Trump’s “war mongering” agenda.
“As a consequence, all gas agreements between Venezuela and Trinidad will be suspended,” Rodriguez said in Spanish.
On Sunday, Rodriguez announced in a statement in Spanish that Venezuela had captured “a group of mercenaries” linked to a Central Intelligence Agency-sanctioned “false flag” operation.
On Saturday, Rodriguez used Telegram to announce that there was an effort to revoke the citizenship of exiled opposition leader Leopoldo López. Maduro’s loyalists called on similar measures for María Corina Machado, an opposition leader who remained in hiding in Venezuela.
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