The Trump administration's view on the "dialogue" give by special envoy for Venezuela Richard Grenell:
>From the United Nations to an ambassadorship in Germany to acting director of >national intelligence, Grenell has specialized in foreign affairs for most of >his life. But he called the outcome of Friday’s trip the “highlight” of his >career. “Not only did we get the hostages back without paying a penny and without trading any hostages – which is really important – but we also got the Venezuelan government to bring their planes to the United States to take illegal immigrants in our country from Venezuela back to Venezuela,” he explained. “They are sending the planes, and they are paying for it. I think this is the new standard.” Grenell said he left Washington, D.C., “super early” Friday morning on an Air Force plane bound for Caracas. Once on the ground, he made his way to the presidential palace to begin negotiations with Nicolás Maduro and his team. While Grenell called the negotiations “top secret,” he said Trump made it clear that the purpose of his trip was two-fold. “First of all, to get the illegal immigrants in our country back to Venezuela and they needed to accept all of these individuals, including the awful group” he explained. “And we went for everything by saying, ‘You need to provide the planes, you need to pay for it, you need to come get them.'” Part two, involved the Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. “And then the president wanted us to focus on the hostages. There are 12 Americans, at least… that are, in essence, hostages. They are held on really lame charges,” Grenell said. “We had a conversation about the individuals… Some of these individuals, it is going to take some time. But… we were able to successfully argue that these six were absolutely innocent, they are not political in nature, and they deserve to come home.”... The U.S. does not officially recognize Maduro’s current government because it is believed he lost the most recent election to a challenger, which made Grenell’s trip to meet with the embattled leader all the more controversial. It also provided leverage. “President Maduro said to me, ‘We’re going to give you these, and now these are the things we want,'” he recalled. “And I said, ‘No, we are giving you a huge gift, and the huge gift is that I am here sitting with you, you’ve got all sorts of cameras around, and you’re going to use this for propaganda purposes’… The gift was a conversation, a hope of a different future, and an American diplomat sitting there.” Ultimately, Grenell believes the visit demonstrates the power of diplomacy. “What I have learned is you’ve got to show up… and talk,” he said. “Talking is a tactic. It is not weakness. It is, in the face of looking at someone else, pushing for the American agenda and not backing down… It’s called diplomacy.” https://www.megynkelly.com/2025/02/03/ric-grenell-shares-new-details-about-secret-trip-to-venezuela/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#35188): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/35188 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/111135832/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
