Grenell to give Venezuela a warning from Trump administration

President Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, is delivering an in-person message to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro that there will be consequences if detained Americans are not released and Venezuelan “criminals and gang members” deported from the U.S. are not repatriated.

Grenell is expected to meet with Maduro on Friday. 

“He is there on a special mission, and that special mission is very specific,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy for Latin America, told reporters in a call Friday.

Claver-Carone said the U.S. offer toward Maduro is not a negotiation or a quid pro quo, and expects Maduro to act on Washington’s demands.

“All I would do on this call is urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed to special envoy Rick Grenell’s message and to his demands and what he puts on the table, because ultimately there will be consequences.”

The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela following the contested presidential election in July.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call earlier this month with Maduro’s challenger, Edmundo González  Urrutia, whom he called the “rightful president” of the country. 

There are at least 10 Americans jailed in Venezuela but it’s not clear how the U.S. classifies their legal status. At least three Americans were swept up in arrests of anti-Maduro protests in December. 

In December 2023, then-President Biden secured the release of 10 Americans jailed in Venezuela and the return of a fugitive defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” in exchange for handing over Maduro’s close ally, Alex Saab.

Saab was arrested during the first Trump administration on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and a $350 million bribery scheme.

Updated at 11:48 a.m. EST