Qatar pushes US-Venezuela diplomacy as Trump focuses on military action
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Oct 10
- 4 min read
By EDWARD WONG, ERIC SCHMITT and JULIE TURKEWITZ
The Gulf Arab nation Qatar is trying to act as a mediator in the conflict between the United States and Venezuela, even as President Donald Trump continues building up military forces in the Caribbean and striking civilian boats, according to three people with knowledge of Qatar’s diplomacy.
Qatar’s efforts have been encouraged by the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro, but they have not been embraced by the Trump administration, which appears more focused on military options than on diplomacy.
The Pentagon has deployed 10,000 U.S. troops to the region, most of them to bases in Puerto Rico, a senior U.S. military official said. Troops are also on eight surface warships and a submarine in the region.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, says Maduro is an illegitimate leader and a fugitive from a 2020 Justice Department indictment on drug trafficking charges. Rubio has been trying to craft a strategy to oust Maduro through military pressure, a mission supported by John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, and Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief domestic policy adviser.
“I do know Qatar is passing messages back and forth,” said Juan Gonzalez, who was the director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the National Security Council during the Biden administration. “They’re trying to find a way to encourage a more structured dialogue or back channel between both sides, but they have not been getting much traction with the Trump administration.”
A current official described Qatar’s efforts as trying to keep channels of communication open between the United States and Venezuela as part of the tiny nation’s goal of playing an important role in global diplomacy.
It is one of 12 sets of multinational diplomacy in which Qatar is involved, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
Qatari officials spoke about Venezuela with President Joe Biden and with Antony Blinken, his secretary of state, Gonzalez said. Qatar also hosted meetings between Gonzalez and a top Venezuelan official, Jorge Rodriguez, in 2023.
And among the 12 sets of negotiations, Qatar is acting as a mediator in several high-stakes talks involving the Trump administration and other parties, including on Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
But on Venezuela, Rubio and his allies are succeeding in pushing a militaristic approach, so the Trump administration has refrained from asking Qatar to play a significant diplomatic role.
Trump has not said publicly that he intends to oust Maduro. But last week, he told Richard Grenell, a special presidential envoy and the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, to halt diplomatic efforts with Maduro and his government, U.S. officials have said.
Grenell has been the Trump administration’s main negotiator with Maduro on issues that included the release of some American prisoners, Venezuela’s acceptance of deportation flights carrying its citizens, and potential energy and minerals deals.
Maduro has continued to accept deportation flights from the United States despite the rising hostility from the Trump administration, and he has expressed interest in the two governments finding common ground, Venezuelan officials say.
Maduro sent a letter to Trump last month saying he and his country were not responsible for drugs entering the United States.
“I know that Maduro is eager to reestablish lines of communication,” Gonzalez said. He added that because Trump does not seem to be warming to diplomacy, Maduro “is getting a lot of pressure from people in his government to cut off cooperation on migration.”
Gonzalez met with Venezuelan officials in Qatar, Italy and Mexico in 2023 to discuss having Maduro hold competitive elections in exchange for the lifting of certain U.S. sanctions.
On the side, Gonzalez also negotiated for Venezuela to release American prisoners and to accept deportation flights from the United States starting in the fall of 2023. Grenell got a renewal of that agreement after Maduro temporarily halted the flights this year.
Qatar “played host, maintained minutes and helped us exchange documents and information on sensitive matters,” Gonzalez said. “At times, when we were stuck on issues, they would engage our government and also send someone to Venezuela to push on issues.”
“They were incredibly helpful to us,” he said.
Rubio has praised Venezuelan opposition leaders seeking to depose Maduro and met with five opposition figures in May after they fled Caracas, the capital. An adviser to the country’s main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, told The New York Times last month that they were speaking with the Trump administration on how to counter Maduro and criminal organizations.
Since early September, the U.S. military has carried out at least four lethal strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 21 people. Trump has said they were drug traffickers, but has provided no evidence of that nor given a clear legal basis to the public for the attacks. On Wednesday, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said his government believed that the last boat hit by the United States was Colombian and was carrying his country’s citizens.
The military buildup in the Caribbean suggests that the Pentagon is aiming to carry out much more expansive operations, including perhaps in Venezuela itself.
About 4,500 sailors and Marines are aboard the eight surface warships and the submarine. The main growth has been in Puerto Rico, where the force is now at roughly 5,500 troops, the U.S. military official said. They include aircrews for F-35 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones and other intelligence-gathering and transport aircraft. Maintenance, logistics and other support personnel are also among the new troops.