Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected US allegations of being a drug trafficker and asked President Donald Trump for dialogue, according to a letter released Sunday by Caracas, as tensions soar between the two countries.
The letter addressed to Trump is dated September 6 and was sent days after the United States deployed warships off the coast of Venezuela and carried out the first of several attacks on Venezuela-based boats alleged by Washington to be carrying drugs, said AFP.
That first attack left 11 people dead and two more strikes have followed, despite Maduro's letter with his plea for peace.
In the missive, Maduro -- whose July 2024 reelection was seen by the opposition and much of the international community as fraudulent -- rejected as "absolutely false" US allegations that he leads a drug cartel.
"It is the worst fake news that has been launched against our country in an escalation in an armed conflict that would do catastrophic damage to the whole continent," the letter states.
Maduro urged Trump to "keep the peace with dialogue and understanding in the entire hemisphere."
"President, I hope that together we can defeat this fake news that is filling with noise a relationship that should be historic and peaceful."
Maduro maintained that Venezuela was a "drug-free" country and that only five percent of the drugs produced in neighboring Colombia made their way onto Venezuelan territory.
"A very relevant fact is that this year we have already neutralized and destroyed more than 70 percent of that small percentage that attempts to cross that extensive border, more than 2,200 kilometers (1,300 miles) long, that we share with Colombia," he said.
Ongoing operations
Since the letter was sent, US forces in the Caribbean have attacked two more boats that Washington said were carrying drugs -- one off Venezuela and one further north, off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
This last attack was first announced Friday by Trump himself, without saying where it happened, and was confirmed Sunday by the drug enforcement agency of the Dominican Republic and the US embassy there.
The attack left three people dead.
The US military deployment has been widely denounced in Latin America, stoking fears that the United States is planning to attack Venezuela.
It involves eight warships and a nuclear-powered submarine sent to the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela and 10 fighter jets sent to nearby Puerto Rico.
Venezuela has denounced the "military threat" against it following the deployment of the US ships. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lppez spoke of an "undeclared war" on Friday.
The US deployment has also prompted debate over the legality of the killings, with drug trafficking itself not a capital offense under US law.
The United States is attacking and destroying vessels rather than seizing them and arresting their crew, which is the normal procedure in anti-drug operations.
