Venezuela Says It's Open to Talks With Trump to Take Back Criminals From U.S.

Venezuela Says It's Open to Talks With Trump to Take Back Criminals From U.S.

By Kejal Vyas. WSJ

Venezuela's authoritarian regime said it was willing to work with Washington to take back Venezuelan criminals from the U.S. in a rare show of support for President Trump's plans to designate Latin American drug gangs as terrorist groups.

Venezuela “is open to restarting cooperation with the U.S. government to achieve the extradition of any Venezuelan member of a transnational criminal group who commits crimes across the continent,” the country’s top prosecutor Tarek William Saab said in a statement Monday. He also said his government had dismantled the Tren de Aragua gang, which has spread around the region and has drawn Trump's ire. Richard Grenell, Trump's special envoy for Venezuela, said in a post on X that he spoke with multiple Venezuelan officials Monday and would begin meetings early Tuesday. "Diplomacy is back," Grenell wrote. "Talking is a tactic."