The American ultimatum has been rejected; Is a harsh retaliation coming next?

Fox News reports that this was announced by the Miami Herald, which states that the warning from Washington was delivered during a phone call with Caracas, in which guaranteed evacuation was offered for the Venezuelan leader, his wife Cilia Flores, and their son—but only if Maduro agreed to resign immediately.

Unnamed U.S. officials said the conversation dragged on, and within a few hours Washington opted for a dramatic escalation.

“The deadlock they faced was caused by Maduro’s demand for global amnesty for all crimes committed by him and his group, which was refused. Secondly, they wanted to retain control over the armed forces, similar to what happened in Nicaragua in 1991 with Violeta Chamorro. In exchange for that, they would allow free elections,” the Miami Herald sources said.

Tanjug/AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos

The final issue was timing, as Washington demanded that Maduro resign immediately, but Caracas refused.

The American newspaper also reported that Maduro’s government tried to schedule another phone call with Washington, but received no response.

The most serious threat yet

According to a defense expert familiar with the connections between Venezuela’s military, state institutions, and the narco‑cartel, Maduro and the key people around him may now face the most serious threat to date.

Trump announced on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace would be considered “completely closed.”

“I think operations will begin soon. Clearing the airspace is an indicator and a very clear public warning that missiles could arrive and destroy command-and-control infrastructure or infrastructure responsible for reprisals,” Neumann said.

She stated that “the targets have been identified through covert operations over the past several years by people on the ground. So the mapping is thorough. This is a ‘capture or kill’ scenario, but there is a limit to how many people you can remove quickly,” she added.

Tanjug/AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez

On Sunday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “Don’t read anything into it,” regarding his statement about closing Venezuelan airspace when asked whether an attack was inevitable.

“Rubbish supplied by the Russians”

“Maduro also doesn’t have many options, and his military is very weak. You cannot attack 30 people at once, who are scattered everywhere, but certainly Maduro himself would be high on the list,” Neumann warned.

She noted that Venezuela’s armed forces, once among the strongest in Latin America, have been weakened over the years by corruption, sanctions, defections, and lack of weapons maintenance.

“Their military equipment is extremely old, dilapidated, and unserviced. They have rubbish supplied by the Russians. The things they originally had from the Americans are decades old and have never been maintained. So they lack personnel, foreign support, and functional equipment,” Neumann concluded.

Cartel de los Soles

Before closing Venezuelan airspace, the U.S. also officially designated the Cartel de los Soles, allegedly linked to the Venezuelan government, as a foreign terrorist organization, as previously announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“This cartel turned Venezuela’s main oil company into a money-laundering operation for drug trafficking, using the company’s access to international finance, until it was sanctioned. They used Venezuelan military aircraft to transport cocaine from Colombia, process it in Venezuela, and then move it to Central America and Europe,” explained Neumann, executive director of Asymmetrica Group, which has worked with governments worldwide to prevent the cartel’s criminal activities.

She stated that “pilots made a lot of money from this and tortured people.”

“They target anyone who betrays them—people simply disappear. They are now one of the main drug trafficking networks in the U.S. and Europe and use their military connections to expand and accelerate these operations,” Neumann added.

She also named other Venezuelan officials around Maduro who could become U.S. targets, including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello, the Ministers of Interior, Justice, and Peace, and Alexander Granko Arteaga, head of Venezuela’s counterintelligence agency DGCIM.

“One reason Granko is important is that he is one of the reasons why (Maduro and officials) haven’t surrendered and why there hasn’t been a military uprising. The reason lies in the brutality of the counterintelligence services, which torture hundreds of their own soldiers,” Neumann said.