The Trump administration is negotiating an agreement with Venezuela that would lay the foundation for a potential long-term U.S. military presence in the country, U.S. officials said. The talks could open the door to a remarkable and perhaps risky new stage in the U.S. relationship with Venezuela, as the two former adversaries attempt to move toward military cooperation. Venezuela’s top officials have become subservient to President Trump since U.S. troops killed scores of people in a nighttime assault on Venezuela in January and took Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader, to a prison in New York.
In a speech in Washington on Monday, Mr. Trump referred to “our conquest of Venezuela.” The negotiations are the latest manifestation of the U.S. government’s increasingly militarized policies in Latin America. Trump and his top aides have ordered troops to carry out operations across the region, including joint actions with forces in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
The U.S. military has also carried out scores of lethal strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific that many legal experts say are extrajudicial killings. The Trump administration has forged closer security ties with many of the region’s right-wing governments and has troops and military assets at bases across Central and South America. Venezuela’s new authoritarian leader, Delcy Rodríguez, is an ally of Mr.
Maduro and has a history of criticizing the United States, including its military. Maduro’s ouster, she has worked closely with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The State Department under Mr.
Rubio is leading the talks on the military pact, known as a status of forces agreement, or SOFA, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Any details of a long-term U.S. troop presence in Venezuela, including numbers and locations, would be worked out in future agreements. The State Department said in a statement that it has negotiated status of forces agreements with more than 100 countries.
The United States maintains tens of thousands of troops on bases in some of them but only a few advisers or units in others. The pacts, it said, “promote defense cooperation by providing a clear, predictable legal framework for U.S. forces to work on mutually agreed activities with our security partners, such as ship visits, training, exercises and humanitarian assistance.” The Embassy of Venezuela in Washington did not reply to a request for comment. It is extraordinary for the American government to try to reach such an arrangement with Venezuela, which recently considered the United States an enemy and which had troops killed in the U.S. assault in January.
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