The United States will start fighting drug cartels on land in the same way that they do at sea, US President Donald Trump announced at the Kennedy Center “Honors“ gala dinner.
The United States is pursuing boats off the coast of Central and South America for suspected drug trafficking.
“We will start the same process on land because we know every route, we know every house, we know where they live.“ "We know everything about them," he said.
He added that the amount of drugs entering the United States by sea has decreased by 94 percent.
"And I'm trying to figure out what the other six percent is," the president concluded.
Washington justifies its military presence in the Caribbean region by citing the fight against drug trafficking.
In the first two months of autumn, the Americans repeatedly opened fire to destroy boats off the coast of Venezuela. In late September, NBC reported that the US military was working on options to target drug traffickers in the Latin American country itself.
In November, Trump expressed the opinion that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's days as head of state were numbered, but assured that Washington had no plans to go to war with Caracas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the importance of continuing dialogue between Venezuela and the United States during a phone call on Saturday with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the Anadolu Agency (AA) reported, quoted by BTA.
According to the Turkish Presidency's Communications Directorate, the two presidents discussed bilateral relations and key regional developments over the phone.
Erdogan stressed to Maduro the importance of dialogue between the United States and Venezuela, expressing hope that the current tensions between them will ease.
Turkey maintains close ties with Venezuela. President Erdogan last visited the country in December 2018 to offer his support to Maduro, whose re-election was rejected by Washington and some European countries due to electoral fraud.
American officials and media have raised the possibility that Maduro could seek asylum in Turkey if he falls from power.
“I hear Turkey and Iran are very nice this time of year“, wrote Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in “Ex“ last week, urging the Venezuelan president to leave his country.