OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
10:48 AM – Friday, January 2, 2026
Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed in an interview that Venezuela is “ready” to participate in “serious talks” with the United States to prevent drug trafficking, following a U.S. drone strike on a docking area in the country that is believed to serve as a hub for drug cartels.
In addition to drug trafficking, Maduro also signaled that he is ready for American investment in Venezuela’s oil sector, referencing the ongoing operations of Chevron.
Maduro appeared in a “Pod-Car” interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, recorded on December 31st and broadcast on January 1st on the socialist regime’s news channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). Maduro drove Ramonet around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas through the interview, while his wife Cilia Flores and Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez sat in the backseat.
“We need to start serious talks, with data in hand. The U.S. government knows this, because we have told many of its spokespeople that if they want to have serious talks about an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we are ready,” Maduro said. “If they want oil from Venezuela, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investments, such as with Chevron, whenever they want, wherever they want, and however they want.”
Maduro claimed that Venezuela has a “perfect” drug trafficking prevention model, and that there is a perpetuated “narrative that, even in the United States, they don’t believe, for any reason.” He also argued that his regime has the “maturity and stature” to reach peaceful agreements with the U.S., provided President Donald Trump’s administration employs “rationality and diplomacy.”
In a calculated piece of “visual diplomacy,” a red baseball cap embroidered with the slogan “Not War, Yes Peace” was prominently displayed in the backseat of the vehicle during Maduro’s New Year’s interview. The hat serves as a tangible reference to a viral electronic remix of Maduro’s recent English-language appeals to Washington. The Venezuelan leader, who was filmed dancing to the “Peace Remix” during a December rally, appears to be using the imagery to mirror the aesthetic of the Trump administration while simultaneously pleading for a halt to the escalating drone strikes.
Maduro’s overtures come as the Trump administration tightens its grip on the region. A massive naval buildup off the Venezuelan coast has already seen the seizure of sanctioned tankers, while Operation Southern Spear has executed over 30 lethal strikes against suspected narco-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Maduro and several of his top associates remain under U.S. federal indictment on multiple narcoterrorism counts. The State Department currently maintains a $50 million bounty — the highest of its kind — for information leading to the Venezuelan leader’s arrest or conviction.
He is accused of commanding the Cartel of the Suns, a sophisticated drug-trafficking network integrated into the highest levels of the Venezuelan military and government. In a major legal escalation, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity in late 2025.
“The current status quo with the current Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in December. “The status quo [is] that they operate and cooperate with terrorist organizations against the national interest of the United States — not just cooperate, but partner with and participate in activities that threaten the national interest of the United States. So yes, our goal is to change that dynamic and that’s why the president is doing what he’s doing.”
After weeks of President Trump warning of land strikes on Venezuela’s drug hubs, the CIA reportedly struck a dock in the country that was known to have been used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) to load illicit drugs onto a number of vessels, according to U.S. intelligence.
“We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from,” the president told John Catsimatidis on WABC radio earlier this week. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.”
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