Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made his first public appearance in days on Sunday, ending domestic speculation that he had fled amid rising tensions with the United States.
Maduro typically appears on Venezuelan television multiple times a week, but he has not been seen in public since Wednesday, when he posted a video of himself driving through Caracas on his Telegram channel, sparking intense speculation about his whereabouts.
On Sunday, he attended the annual specialty coffee awards ceremony in eastern Caracas.
Footage broadcast online showed the president sitting in front of a crowd, handing out medals to coffee producers and introducing them to their finest products. He made brief remarks over various coffees, none of which openly addressed the country’s current crisis.
At the end of the event, he chanted that Venezuela is “indestructible, untouchable and invincible” while talking about the country’s economy.
The remarks appear to be mindful of tensions with the United States, which has sent more than a dozen warships and about 15,000 troops to the region as part of efforts to combat drug trafficking, but Caracas believes it is an attempt to oust Maduro from office.
Mr Maduro’s appearance at the Coffee Awards ceremony came shortly after US President Donald Trump admitted to having spoken by phone with the Venezuelan leader.
“I don’t want to comment on that. The answer is yes,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if the call took place. “I can’t say it went well, and I can’t say it was bad either. It was just a phone call away.”
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and Maduro spoke by phone earlier this month.
President Maduro and senior government officials have not commented on the phone call with President Trump.
On Sunday, Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez declined to discuss the conversation, saying it was not the purpose of the press conference, but instead focused on announcing an investigation into the United States’ recent maritime attack on an alleged drug smuggling ship in the Caribbean that killed more than 80 people.
The US president has ratcheted up pressure on Maduro in recent days, warning that ground attacks against drug-trafficking networks could occur “soon” and instructing airlines, pilots and criminal networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace.
But President Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that the warning over Venezuelan airspace was not a signal that an airstrike was imminent.
“Don’t read too much into anything,” the president said, adding that he issued the airspace warning “because we believe that Venezuela is not a very friendly country.”
Meanwhile, as tensions look set to escalate further, President Maduro has sent a letter to OPEC accusing the US of trying to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves by force, and the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly has accused the US of “murder” over recent military attacks on alleged drug smugglers.
In a letter dated Nov. 30 to OPEC Secretary-General Haitham al-Ghaith, Maduro accused the United States of making “constant and repeated explicit threats” against his country, saying its actions “seriously endanger Venezuela’s oil production and the stability of international markets.”
Venezuela’s oil reserves are considered to be among the largest in the world.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Gil Pinto posted a letter to OPEC on Telegram with a pledge that Venezuela is “resolutely committed to the defense of our natural energy resources.”
“Nothing will stop us. We will remain free and sovereign!” Pinto wrote.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter.
The US State Department has previously pushed back against such claims. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his administration “remains steadfast in its anti-drug operations in the Caribbean and its determination to protect the American people from the venom of the Maduro regime,” in response to an exclusive CNN report that said Trump’s focus in Venezuela was on oil, not drug trafficking.
Venezuela accused the United States of “murder” early Sunday after publicly acknowledging for the first time that some of its citizens were among those killed in a U.S. attack on an alleged drug smuggler.
“There is no declaration of war[between the United States and Venezuela]so this cannot be classified as anything other than murder,” National Assembly Speaker Rodríguez said at a press conference on Sunday.
“Every human being has the right to due process. No human being should be allowed to be brutally killed,” he said.
CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.
This is the first time the city of Caracas has publicly stated that some of its citizens have been killed in U.S. airstrikes that have continued since September.
Rodriguez, a key figure in Maduro’s government, said he had met with the families of those killed and that Venezuela’s parliament would convene on Monday to “establish a special commission to investigate the serious events that led to the killing of Venezuelans in the Caribbean.”
He said the investigation would consider reports that the U.S. military conducted a follow-up attack on a suspected drug carrier in the Caribbean on September 2, after the initial attack did not kill all the crew.
Asked by CNN’s Stefano Pozzebong how many Venezuelans were killed in the airstrike, Rodriguez declined to give a number, saying only: “We will open an investigation tomorrow and will share the information when we find out.”
Maduro’s government has been accused of extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses in the past. Venezuelans facing government repression are routinely denied fair trials, according to a statement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
More than 50 Venezuelans were detained for political reasons in October alone, human rights groups told CNN.
The Venezuelan government denies allegations of human rights abuses.
