Trump gave Maduro ultimatum to flee Venezuela as land operations loom: report

President Donald Trump delivered a stern ultimatum to Nicolás Maduro to leave Venezuela immediately before announcing the country's airspace should be closed, according to a report.

The conversation stalled, U.S. officials said, and within hours Washington escalated dramatically. 

The ensuing impasse, a source told the outlet, was over Maduro asking for "global amnesty for any crimes he and his group had committed, and that was rejected." 

"Second, they asked to retain control of the armed forces - similar to what happened in Nicaragua in '91 with Violeta Chamorro. In return, they would allow free elections." 

The final issue was timing, according to the outlet, as Washington demanded that Maduro resign immediately - but Caracas refused.

Trump went on to announce Saturday that Venezuelan airspace would be considered "closed in its entirety." 

The Herald also reported that the Maduro government tried to schedule another call to Washington but received no response.

According to a defense expert familiar with the country's military and state-linked cartel ties, Maduro and key players in his regime could now face their most serious threat yet.

"The clearing of the airspace is an indication and a very clear public warning that missiles might be coming to take out command and control infrastructure or retaliatory infrastructure," Neumann said. "This will not be like breaking a jar into a thousand pieces, this is where you can lift the concentration of power, and it's easier to manage."

"The targets have been identified through covert operations over the last several years by people on the ground," she continued. "So they're well-mapped. This is a capture-or-kill scenario, but there's a limit to how many people you can remove quickly."

On Sunday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One not to "read anything into" his declaring Venezuela's airspace closed when asked if a strike was imminent. 

Venezuela's armed forces, once among Latin America's strongest, have been weakened by years of corruption, sanctions, defections, and lack of maintenance. Much of its equipment, Neumann says, has never even been serviced.

"Their material is extremely old, decayed, and has not been serviced," Neumann explained. 

"They've got junk from the Russians. The stuff they originally had from the Americans is decades old and has not been serviced.

"So, they have neither the personnel, foreign support, nor the material," she said.

"This cartel turned Venezuela's main oil company into a narcotics trafficking money laundering operation, using the company's access to international finance, until it was sanctioned," Neumann, who has worked with governments on countering transnational organized crime linked to the group, explained.

"They were using Venezuelan military jets to bring in cocaine from Colombia, process it in Venezuela, and then move it into Central America and then into Europe.

"Jet pilots were making a lot of money off that, and they've tortured people. They target people, anybody who tell on them, they're disappeared," Neumann said. "They're now one of the prime drug trafficking networks into the United States and Europe, and use their military positions, including their military-to-military relations, to grow and accelerate those movements."

In fact, in September, the European Parliament also voted in favor of the EU designating Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. has also ramped up a military and intelligence campaign targeting drug-trafficking networks linked to Venezuela, including strikes on suspected narcotics boats.

"The decision is President Trump's because when he says, 'Go', we go. And nobody knows when he'll say that," Neumann said. "He has mobilized so many assets down there now. But what President Trump is doing now is long overdue."

She also noted that "Maduro is also weakened because his partners are weakened and have their own issues to deal with," and that "we also now have a concentration of power and deep repression within the country that's quite unified, which means it's easy to flip."

Neumann identified others in the regime who may be targeted, including Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace and Alexander Granko Arteaga, head of Venezuela's counter-intelligence agency, the DGCIM.

"One of the reasons Granko is an important figure is that he's one of the reasons why they haven't capitulated and why there has not been a military uprising," Neumann explained.

"It's because of the brutality of the counter-intelligence that they do to their own military, and hundreds of soldiers are tortured. That said, the Venezuelan people have made it clear that they wanted Maduro out and fought democratically but lost," she added.

"They voted in elections, protested peacefully, lobbied for sanctions, and lobbied for international support," Neumann said.