President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell, has traveled to Venezuela to personally deliver a message to socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, demanding that his government accept the return of violent criminals deported from the United States.
During a call with reporters on Friday, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy to Latin America, stated that Grenell would make it clear to Maduro that Venezuela must take back all Venezuelan criminals and Tren de Aragua gang members who have been “exported to the United States” without conditions or delay, Fox News reported on Friday.
Additionally, Grenell is expected to demand the immediate release of American hostages being held in Venezuela, Claver-Carone added.
The trip “focuses on two very specific issues. That we expect that Venezuelan criminals and gangs will be returned, as they are, to every country in the world, without conditions, and two, that American hostages need to be released immediately, unequivocally,” he explained.
“This is not a quid pro quo. It’s not a negotiation in exchange for anything. President Trump himself has made that very clear,” the envoy added.
Also Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Grenell, who served an intelligence role in Trump’s first term, had arrived in Venezuela for talks.
Despite wide belief among Venezuelan citizens and much of the rest of the world that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, he was nevertheless sworn in for his third six-year term earlier this month.
