Trump: Sanctions on Maduro Are Pressuring Him to Seek Talks

U.S. efforts to block Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s access to money and oil markets are pressing the authoritarian leader to sit down at the negotiating table, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

“Maduro is willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues,” Trump said Wednesday in a tweet. Trump added that the leader of the opposition, National Assembly President Juan Guaido, is “being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court.”

Maduro is willing to sit down with the opposition “for the sake of Venezuela’s peace and its future,” he told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. Guaido, who the U.S. State Department has determined to have authority over the nation’s accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other U.S.-insured banks, has yet to respond to the call for negotiations.

Trump said to expect “massive protests” Wednesday in Venezuela and cautioned Americans from traveling there until further notice.