Venezuala’s prez held secret talks with US officials

CARACAS: A month into Venezuela’s high-stakes political crisis, President Nicolas Maduro revealed in an AP interview that his government held secret talks with the Trump administration and predicted he would survive an unprecedented global campaign to force his resignation.

While harshly criticising Donald Trump’s confrontational stance towards his socialist government, Maduro said on Thursday that he holds out hope of meeting the US president soon to resolve a crisis triggered by America’s recognition of opponent Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader. Maduro said that during two hushed meetings in New York, his foreign minister invited the Washington-based special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, to come to visit “privately, publicly or secretly”.

“If he wants to meet, just tell me when, where and how and I’ll be there,” Maduro said.

He said both New York meetings lasted several hours. A senior administration official in Washington said US officials were willing to meet with “former Venezuela officials, including Maduro himself, to discuss their exit plans”.