US President Donald Trump on Friday said Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had offered major concessions to avoid confrontation with Washington. Trump’s comments came amid a significant US military presence in the Caribbean, which Washington says targets drug cartels linked to Venezuela. Earlier this week, B-52 bombers circled the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, while seven US Navy ships have been deployed as part of counter-narcotics operations. The build-up has raised fears in Caracas that the US may be seeking regime change.

On Thursday, US forces struck a suspected drug-carrying submarine, leaving several people alive — the first survivors since the Trump administration began military strikes in the region last month. “We attacked a submarine, and that was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs,” Trump said while hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not dispute the presence of survivors but said more details would be released later. The strike brought the death toll from the administration’s Caribbean operations to at least 28 and is believed to be the sixth strike off Venezuela since early September. The survivors are reportedly being held on a US Navy vessel.