Sources: Trump has spoken with Maduro.Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a military event in Caracas on Tuesday. Photo:

 

Sources: Trump has spoken with Maduro.Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a military event in Caracas on Tuesday. Photo:

US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro late last week, several sources told The New York Times. The leaders are said to have discussed a possible meeting between them in the United States, among other things.

The information comes at a time of escalating tensions between the countries after the United States carried out a series of deadly attacks off the coast of Venezuela this fall against what it claimed were drug-smuggling boats. Washington has pointed to Maduro as partly responsible for the smuggling.

Several US warships are also in the waters of the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela.

Maduro has responded by putting the country on war alert.

At the same time, both leaders have recently opened up for talks.

Although a meeting was reportedly discussed during the phone call reported by The New York Times, there are currently no concrete plans for such a thing, one of the newspaper's sources emphasizes.