Maduro resurfaces in Caracas, as Trump says he has spoken to Venezuelan president

By Alessandra Freitas, Kit Maher, Stefano Pozzebon, CNN

(CNN) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made his first public appearance in days on Sunday, putting to an end speculation within the country that he had fled amid escalating tensions with the US.

Maduro, who usually appears on Venezuelan television multiple times a week, had not been seen in public since Wednesday – when he posted a video of himself driving around Caracas on his Telegram channel – leading to intense speculation as to his whereabouts.

On Sunday, he appeared at an annual specialty-coffee awards event in eastern Caracas.

In images that were broadcast online, the president sat before a crowd and handed out medals to coffee producers showcasing their top products. He sipped various coffees while delivering brief remarks – none of which openly addressed the current crisis in the country.

At the end of the event, he chanted that Venezuela is “indestructible, untouchable, unbeatable” while speaking about the nation’s economy.

The remarks appeared to be a nod to the tensions with the US, which has sent more than a dozen warships and deployed roughly 15,000 troops to the region as part of what it says is an effort to combat drug trafficking – but Caracas believes is an attempt to force Maduro from office.

Maduro’s appearance at the coffee awards event came just moments after US President Donald Trump confirmed he had spoken with the Venezuelan leader on the phone.

“I don’t want to comment on that – the answer is yes,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked whether the call had taken place. “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly. It was a phone call.”

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported that Trump and Maduro spoke by phone earlier this month.

Maduro and senior members of his government have not commented on the phone call with Trump.

On Sunday, Jorge Rodríguez, who heads Venezuela’s National Assembly, declined to discuss the conversation, saying it was not the purpose of his press conference – which instead focused on announcing an inquiry into recent US maritime strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean that have killed more than 80 people.

In recent days, the US president has increased the pressure on Maduro by warning that strikes on land against drug trafficking networks could be coming “very soon” and telling airlines, pilots and criminal networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace.

However, speaking on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump told reporters his warning about Venezuelan airspace was not a signal that an airstrike is imminent.

“Don’t read anything into it,” the president said, adding he made the airspace warning “because we consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country.”

US wants our oil, Maduro tells OPEC

Meanwhile, in what appeared to be a further ratcheting up of tensions, Maduro wrote to OPEC accusing the US of seeking to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves through force, while the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly accused the US of “murder” regarding recent military strikes on alleged drug boats.

In a letter to the secretary general of OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais, dated November 30, Maduro accused the US of making “constant and repeating express threats” toward his country, in a move that he said “seriously endangers the stability of Venezuelan oil production and the international market.”

Venezuela’s oil reserves are thought to be among the largest in the world.

Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil Pinto posted the letter to OPEC on Telegram, alongside a vow that Venezuela would “remain firm in defending its natural energy resources.”

“Nothing will stop us. We will continue to be free and sovereign!” Pinto wrote.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter.

Previously, the US State Department has pushed back against such claims. Responding to a CNN exclusive in which Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Trump’s interests in Venezuela were about oil, rather than drug trafficking, it said the administration remains “firm in its counter-drug operations in the Caribbean and its commitment to protecting Americans from the Maduro regime’s deadly poison.”

Boat killings are ‘murder,’ Venezuela says

Earlier Sunday, Venezuela accused the US of “murder,” after publicly acknowledging for the first time that some of its citizens were among those killed by the US strikes on alleged drug boats.

“There’s no declared war (between the US and Venezuela), therefore this cannot be classified as anything but murder,” Rodriguez, the National Assembly president, told a press conference Sunday.

“Every human being has the right to due process; no human being can be killed in a brutal manner,” he said.

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.

This is the first time Caracas has said openly that some of its citizens have been killed by the US strikes, which have been going on since September.

Rodriguez, a key figure of Maduro’s government, said that he had met with the families of those killed and that the Venezuelan parliament would convene on Monday to “create a special commission to investigate the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the Caribbean.”

The investigation, he said, would look into reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board.

When asked by CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon how many Venezuelans had been killed in the strikes, Rodriguez did not provide a number, saying only, “tomorrow we begin the investigation, once we know, we will share that information.”

The Maduro government has also been accused of extrajudicial killings and violation of human rights in the past. According to a statement from the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Venezuelans facing government repression are routinely denied a fair trial.

More than 50 Venezuelans have been detained in the month of October alone for political reasons, human rights groups told CNN.

The Venezuelan government has denied allegations of human rights abuse.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.