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Danish intelligence accuses US of using economic power to ‘assert its will’ over allies

Danish intelligence services have accused the US of using its economic power to “assert its will” and threatening military force against its allies. The comments, made in its annual assessment released this week, mark the first time that the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) has listed the US as a threat to the country. Denmark, the report warns, is “facing more and more serious threats and security policy challenges than in many years”. The report said that the US is “now using its economic and technological strength as a means of power, including against allies and partners”. Competition between superpowers Russia, China and the US, it said, is “increasingly taking place in the Arctic”, which is growing in strategic importance amid increasing tensions between Russia and the west. This, it notes, poses a specific threat to Denmark, which used to rule Greenland as a colony and continues to control its foreign and security policy. “The increased great power competition in the Arctic has significantly increased international attention to the region,” it said. “This applies in particular to the United States’ increasing interest in Greenland and its importance to US national security.” It adds: “At the same time, the attention increases the threat from espionage, including cyber espionage, and attempts to further influence all parts of the kingdom of Denmark.” Greenland remains part of the Danish commonwealth or kingdom. Last week, the new US National Security Strategy policy document, with an introduction signed by Trump, claimed that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”. It came at a time of already heightened tension between the US and Denmark after Trump’s repeated assertions over the past year that he wants to take control of Greenland. Earlier this year, vice-president JD Vance visited US military base Pituffik and accused Denmark of having “not done a good job” in Greenland. In August, an alleged US influence campaign in Greenland resulted in Denmark summoning the US charge d’affaires. In a damning symbol of the changed dynamic between Denmark and the US, traditionally its largest and most important ally, it was recently revealed that Copenhagen had established a “night watch” tasked with monitoring Trump’s unpredictable words and actions while Denmark sleeps. Despite the report’s warnings, the head of the DDIS, Thomas Ahrenkiel, said that the US was still Denmark’s closest ally. “The United States has been and continues to be the guarantor of Europe’s security through its involvement in the transatlantic alliance, its presence in Europe and through the American nuclear umbrella,” he told broadcaster DR. “The United States is leveraging economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to assert its will, and the possibility of employing military force – even against allies – is no longer ruled out,” the report said. It also warns of the uncertainty around the role of the US as a “guarantor of European security”, which it said will increase Russia’s “willingness to intensify its hybrid attacks against Nato”. It adds: “The military threat from Russia to Nato will increase, even though there is currently no threat of a regular military attack against the kingdom of Denmark.”

The importance of Europe in curbing Russia’s might | Letters

I wholly support the plea to Europe by Timothy Garton Ash (Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump – but will it?, 6 December). One aspect he did not mention was the strategic nuclear balance. Since the late 1940s, responsibility for deterrence has always lain with the Pentagon and has succeeded in keeping the peace, though at times a very fragile version of it. The recent US statement on defence makes it clear that Europe is no longer seen as a priority by the Trump administration, the danger now being that doubt is crucially being raised as to the credibility of Nato’s deterrent. Without certainty of a reaction in kind, Russia, under its ambitious and risk-taking president, might be tempted to chance its arm in what almost looks like a ceding of Europe by the US into a Russian “sphere of influence”. If Vladimir Putin triumphs in Ukraine, the future of the Baltic states will probably move up Putin’s agenda – and after that, who knows? In the 1930s, Europe ignored a clear existential threat, and millions paid for it. Europe has to realise that its superior economic and military potential has to be mobilised to secure not just the future of Ukraine, but the stability of Europe. Bill Jones Honorary professor of political studies, Liverpool Hope University • The suggestion by Timothy Garton Ash that Belgium is acting egotistically in resisting the seizure of Russian assets is somewhat harsh. The potential financial liability in the unlikely event of an adverse international legal ruling at some future date would virtually bankrupt the country. Surely it is the resistance of the other EU countries in sharing this liability that is the problem. Robin Wilson London • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Belgian PM meets Starmer in London as debate continues on using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine – as it happened

The Guardian’s live coverage of the day’s top stories from Europe is coming to a close. Here are today’s key events: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Monday for talks on bilateral relations and peace negotiations over the war. Zelenskyy and Germany’s Friederich Merz will be joined by “many European heads of state and government” and top representatives of the EU and Nato for further discussions, its statement said. Ukraine would be slated to join the European Union by 1 January 2027 under a peace proposal being discussed as part of US-mediated negotiations to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Zelenskyy has been under immense pressure from Donald Trump to sign up to the US peace plan, but questions remain about the fairness of the proposals and whether Russia is actually interested in peace. Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever is at 10 Downing Street for bilateral talks with UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. The pair are talking migration, security and economy, among other things, but obviously they will also touch upon the ongoing debate about the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine … The plan has been blocked by Belgium, which hosts €185bn of the immobilised assets at the Euroclear central securities depository in Brussels. The Belgian government says it must have guarantees from EU partners that it will not be on the hook for a multi-billion euro bill if it is successfully sued by Russia. De Wever has described the idea as “fundamentally wrong” and argued it would violate international law and endanger the stability of the euro currency. German chancellor Merz said he “supported” the widely expected softening of the 2035 ban on new petrol or diesel cars, having advocated strongly for changes to the rules on the end of the combustion engine for months. “The reality is that there will still be millions of combustion engine based cars around the world in 2035, 2040 and 2050,” he said. EU member states have agreed to introduce a €3 customs duty per item on parcels valued under €150. The move, which will apply from July next year, is designed to curb the impact of cheap goods coming in from China via online platforms such as Temu and Shein.

Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran

There are fears for the wellbeing of the 2023 Nobel peace prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, after she was detained by Iranian security forces at a memorial ceremony for a human rights lawyer in the eastern city of Mashhad. Mohammadi, 53, who was granted temporary leave from prison on medical grounds in December 2024, was newly detained along with several other activists at the memorial for Khosro Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week. Mohammadi’s brother Mehdi, who was present at the ceremony, confirmed her arrest, her foundation said. Speaking to the Guardian, a member of Mohammadi’s team who requested anonymity said: “Her arrest earlier today appears directly linked to her public remarks in Mashhad following Khosro Alikordi’s suspicious death. At his memorial, human rights activists gathered to protest against what they view as a suspicious and potentially state-linked killing.” Officials in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province said Alikordi suffered a heart attack, but a tightening security crackdown that coincided with his death has raised questions about its circumstances. More than 80 lawyers have signed a statement demanding more information. “Alikordi was a prominent figure among Iran’s community of human rights defenders,” the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Thursday. “Over the past several years, he had been repeatedly arrested, harassed and threatened by security and judicial forces.” Mohammadi’s family members said security and police forces used teargas and violence to disperse people who had gathered for Alikordi’s memorial. Speaking from Paris, Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, told the Guardian he was worried not only for his wife but also for the other rights activists arrested at the same time. Rahmani described the arrest as part of an escalating strategy by the Iranian authorities to suppress dissent. “This is a targeted attack on democracy and the right to freedom of expression,” he said. Mohammadi’s children, Ali and Kiana, said they were also worried for their mother and the other activists. “She had a surgery just a year ago and many others arrested have also been fighting medical conditions,” Ali told the Guardian. “She was arrested two hours ago and we still don’t know where my mother is. “These people don’t belong in the prison.” Footage from the memorial ceremony showed Mohammadi at a microphone, calling out to the crowd and starting a chant in the name of Majidreza Rahnavard, who was publicly hanged by the Iranian authorities in 2022. There was no immediate comment from Iran over its detention of Mohammadi and it was not clear whether authorities would return her to prison to serve the rest of her term. Supporters had cautioned for months she was at risk of being put back in jail. Hasan Hosseini, the city governor of Mashhad, said prosecutors ordered security officials to temporarily detain some participants at the ceremony over the chanting of “norm-breaking” slogans, Iranian state television reported. Hosseini described the detentions as preventive to protect those there from others in the crowd. Before her release last December, Mohammadi had been imprisoned since November 2021 for convictions relating to her campaign against capital punishment and the obligation for women in Iran to wear the hijab. Her supporters say she suffered multiple heart attacks in prison before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022. Late last year, her lawyer said doctors had found a bone lesion they feared could be cancerous and which was later removed. “Her health could deteriorate very quickly under these conditions,” Rahmani said. “The repression inside the mosque today was carried out with extreme brutality. Teargas was fired, and Narges and other activists were beaten even though they have serious health issues.” Mohammadi’s sentence was supposed to be suspended for three weeks when she was released last year, but her time out of prison lengthened, possibly because of pressure from activists and western powers. She remained free even during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. She kept up her activism with public protests and international media appearances, including demonstrating at one point in front of Evin prison, the notorious facility in Tehran where she was held. Chirinne Ardakani, Mohammadi’s Paris-based lawyer, said: “I am calling for the immediate release of my client, as well as of all the human rights activists who have been arbitrarily detained alongside her. I also reiterate my client’s demand that truth and justice be established regarding the suspicious circumstances surrounding Alikordi’s death, for which we have reason to believe the state bears responsibility.” Mohammadi’s family said they did not know in whose custody she was being held, with Ali adding: “My mother could be in the custody of the Revolutionary Guards or the security forces or police. We don’t know anything.” Rahmani said: “We urge the western media to continue following events in Iran and to please keep reporting.” Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Canada’s Liberals edge closer to majority after Conservative lawmaker crosses floor

Canada’s ruling Liberals have edged closer to a majority government after a Conservative lawmaker crossed the floor, in yet another blow to the struggling Tories. Rookie lawmaker Michael Ma said late on Thursday that he had decided to leave the Conservative party, for “the steady, practical approach” of prime minister Mark Carney’s government, which he said would “deliver on the priorities I hear every day, including affordability and the economy”. He added: “After listening carefully to the people of Markham–Unionville in recent weeks and reflecting with my family on the direction of our country, I have informed the speaker and the leader of the opposition that I will be joining Prime Minister Mark Carney in the government caucus. This is a time for unity and decisive action for Canada’s future.” Ma made the announcement the day after attending the Conservative Christmas party and posing for a photo with Tory leader Pierre Poilievre. He then attended a party hosted by the Liberals the next evening, appearing on stage with Carney to raucous applause. The Liberals now have 171 seats in parliament: one short of a majority. In a statement on social media, Poilievere said Ma “chose to endorse the very policies he was elected to oppose” and would join a party that was increasing the cost of living. “The people he let down the most are the ones who elected him to fight for an affordable future. He will have to answer to them.” The crossing will sting the Conservatives, who have now lost three lawmakers. One crossed to the Liberals in November and another said he would resign in the coming months. On Friday, government house leader Stephen MacKinnon said he believed there were more frustrated opposition members who might be tempted to defect to the Liberals. “All of my colleagues here have the same experience of speaking to Conservative members, unfortunately a group which is in the minority in their group, who are extremely frustrated with the leadership of their party,” he said during a press conference, adding members were forced to participate in a “charade of obstruction” in order to oppose the Liberals that is “soul-destroying experience for many Conservative[s]”. While the addition of a new member to caucus has buoyed Liberals, Carney has faced discontent within his own party. Earlier this month, a prominent cabinet minister, Steven Guilbeault, resigned from his post, protesting Carney’s decision to support a controversial oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Ocean. Guilbeault, a longtime environmental advocate, warned the pipeline to the west coast “would have major environmental impacts … contribute to a significant increase in climate pollution, and move Canada further away from its greenhouse gas reduction targets”. Guibeault warned that lifting the moratorium on oil tanker traffic would significantly increase the risk of accidents in the region.

‘What is going on here?’ Meloni celebrated at Italy’s far-right Atreju Christmas festival

When, out of curiosity, Leila Cader and her friends entered the gardens surrounding Castel Sant’Angelo, a prominent Rome monument that once served as a refuge for popes during times of war, they thought they’d chanced upon an enchanting winter wonderland. With the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, Santa’s elves wandering around, stalls selling nativity-scene figurines and skaters merrily gliding on an ice-rink, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. That was until they got to the “bullometro”, or “bullyometer”, a long blue billboard featuring cut-out faces of various people, and twigged that something was amiss. Cader, an American on an internship in Rome, and her friends had found themselves at Atreju, an annual week-long festival organised by Brothers of Italy, the far-right party of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The billboard says the bullometro rates “the hateful comments” leftwing opponents have directed at Meloni’s government, with the contenders receiving one for “originality” and 10 for “spite”. Critics include Maurizio Landini, a trade union boss and thorn in the government’s side who caused controversy recently after referring to Meloni as “Trump’s courtesan”, and the Placebo frontman Brian Molko, who was charged with defaming the prime minister after appearing to call her a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023. But the image that caught Cader’s eye was an upside-down picture of Charlie Kirk, the US far-right activist and ally of Donald Trump who was assassinated in September, which drew Meloni’s wrath when it was posted online by an Italian student movement in the wake of his killing. The image, captioned “one less, today is less dark”, echoes the death of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was killed by partisans before being hung by his feet from scaffolding at a Milan gas station. By contrast, Kirk was celebrated by Brothers of Italy on “the pantheon”, a billboard on the opposite side of the gardens representing historical figures whom the party considers strong and powerful. “What is going on here?” asked Cader. “We had no idea it was political. We were planning to do some ice-skating but don’t want to give our money to this event.” Atreju, named after the heroic character in the fantasy novel The NeverEnding Story, began in 1998 as a platform for debate among the youth wing of the National Alliance, the neo-fascist party that later morphed into Brothers of Italy. The festival has since evolved, especially in the three years since Meloni came to power, to embrace an unusual mix of politicians of all stripes, Catholic priests, nuns, magistrates and celebrities. In the past it has hosted Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak, while this year’s lineup includes European far-right politicians such as France’s Marion Maréchal and Romania’s George Simion. At the opposite end of the political spectrum are the former Italian prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Giuseppe Conte, and Roberto Fico, the recently elected president of the Campania region. “Even if we have political differences, it’s important to debate,” Fico told the Guardian while perusing the Christmas stalls. But more than a talking shop, Atreju – which this year goes by the slogan “you became strong … Italy with its head held high” – is an opportunity for Meloni to flaunt her power. A video reel close to the entrance aimed at boasting Meloni’s credentials on the international stage shows her shaking hands with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, and meeting Trump at the White House. “Meloni is strong, determined and elegant,” said Pina, who was at the festival with her husband, Pino, who in turn chipped in: “She’s out of this league.” The couple, who did not want to give their surname, are from Rome and said they voted for the left “many years ago”. But, they said, it was something they now regretted. They credited Meloni for boosting their pensions and generally “getting things done”, citing a scheme to repatriate migrants via centres in Albania, even though it has so far failed. Getting tough on crime was also a key Meloni pledge. Enrica Ciardo, a chef, was invited to the event and was managing a stall selling traditional Italian produce. She said she was apolitical, but appreciated the support Italy’s leadership showed when her restaurant in Puglia was the target of bomb threats by the mafia, adding that Meloni’s sister Arianna – a central figure within the management of Brothers of Italy – had visited her. “We’re here to represent legality and make people realise that you need to report criminal incidents and be on the side of the state and not the mafia,” said Ciardo. Atreju, which ends with a speech by Meloni on Sunday, is taking place during the same week Italy’s civic health rating was downgraded to “obstructed” by Civicus, a non-profit that monitors civic freedoms in 198 countries. The downgrade was provoked by factors including the government’s security bill, which ramped up penalties for non-violent protest and expanded police powers, and the alleged state-sanctioned spying of critics. France and Germany were also downgraded amid a global trend in the erosion of civil rights. With the Christmas hit It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year playing on the Brothers of Italy radio, a discussion about education in a small marquee tent became heated when Anna Maria Bernini, the minister for university and research, was heckled by a group of students protesting against a reform. She invited them to debate “for a few minutes” before berating them as “poor communists”. Security then removed the students and called the police. Staff from the Brothers of Italy press office have also kept a close watch over journalists visiting Atreju. Sofia Ventura, a politics professor at the University of Bologna, said the festival was “there to remind us that Meloni always returns to her roots”, while Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a political consultancy in Rome, described it as “Meloni’s own Woodstock”, adding that it provided a useful platform to show herself as “the great convener”. “Her party has long been accused of being into faction wars, and that’s still the case, of course,” Galietti added. “But she wants to show that despite all differences, some sort of dialogue can take place, at least once a year.” Close to a huge Christmas tree decorated in the colours of the Italian flag was a cut-out of Meloni mocking her “communist” opponents.

Machado escape planner feared US strike on her vessel as it fled Venezuela

The most dangerous moments came when salvation seemed finally assured. Many miles from land, the small fishing skiff carrying the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel prize laureate María Corina Machado had been lost at sea for hours, tossed by strong winds and 10ft waves. A further hazard was the ever present risk of an inadvertent airstrike by US warplanes hunting alleged cocaine smugglers. After three hours drifting in the darkness, the flimsy boat finally made contact with a larger vessel sent to take Machado to Curaçao, a former Dutch colony that remains part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. From there, the 58-year-old politician would travel by private jet, via the US, to Oslo, where the Nobel prize was due to be awarded to her within hours. The relief was intense. “There was a moment when I felt like there was real risk to my life,” Machado told the Guardian in Oslo on Friday. “But it was a very spiritual moment because in the end I felt like I was in God’s hands and it would be in his hands. He decided for me to be here and able to hug my family and other families of political prisoners.” The clandestine 5,500-mile (8,850km) journey from Venezuela to Norway was organised by Bryan Stern, a US special forces veteran who heads the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, a Florida-based NGO specialising in the “rescue [of] Americans and allies from conflict and disaster zones”, according to its website. Stern described on Wednesday the challenges of organising the escape of Machado. “She has a very large target on her back,” Stern told CBS News. “This is not a random shopkeeper who doesn’t want to be in Venezuela any more. This is moving around a rock star.” Since Nicolás Maduro took power in 2013, Venezuela has been in economic mayhem, subjected to hyperinflation, hunger and increasingly authoritarian rule. Last year, Maduro was accused of stealing the presidential election and launched a wave of repression, forcing Machado into hiding. Independently verified data shows the poll was won by Machado’s ally Edmundo González. The Wall Street Journal reported that Machado wore a wig and a disguise to flee a safehouse in a suburb of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. She then crossed 10 roadblocks before arriving in a remote fishing port where helpers had prepared a small fishing skiff. The battered boat had been chosen primarily because it was so different in appearance from the powerful and fast vessels favoured by cocaine smugglers. But still, the fear lurked that US forces could mistake the high-seas rendezvous for a contraband handover and inadvertently launch an airstrike on the conservative leader who dedicated her Nobel win to Donald Trump. Since August, the US president has ramped up pressure on Maduro, putting a $50m bounty on his head and ordering a massive military buildup in the Caribbean – as well as a series of deadly airstrikes on alleged narco vessels, killing more than 80 people. On Wednesday, the US seized a “dark fleet” oil tanker near Venezuela, which Caracas denounced as “blatant theft”. In order to reduce the risk of an airstrike, Stern told US defence officials some of his planned route. But many perils remained. He said: “It was dangerous. It was scary. The sea conditions were ideal for us, but certainly not water that you would want to be on … The higher the waves, the harder it is for radar to see. That’s how it works.” A technical fault delayed the skiff, while its primary GPS system was swept away by waves and a backup navigation device failed, the WSJ reported. “The seas are very rough. It’s pitch black. We’re using flashlights to communicate. This is very scary, lots of things can go wrong,” Stern told the BBC. Amid growing fears they could miss the rendezvous, the two boats finally met and the politician reached Curaçao by mid-afternoon on Tuesday. On Wednesday mornin,g a private jet carrying Machado departed for Norway, via a stop on the US east coast. She arrived in Oslo too late for the Wednesday evening prize-giving ceremony but appeared on a balcony of the Grand Hotel in the Norwegian capital early on Thursday, waving and blowing kisses to cheering supporters chanting “freedom”. The last time she had appeared in public was in Caracas in January, when she protested over Maduro’s inauguration for his third term. The Nobel peace prize was awarded to Machado for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”. Stern said the operation to get her to Oslo was financed by “a few generous donors” and that the US government “did not contribute a single penny”. The decision to leave Venezuela and join the Nobel events in Oslo would have come at both personal and political risk to Machado, say analysts. Benedicte Bull, a professor specialising in Latin America at the University of Oslo, said: “She risks being arrested if she returns even if the authorities have shown more restraint with her than with many others, because arresting her would have a very strong symbolic value.” In her acceptance speech on Wednesday, read by one of her daughters, Machado denounced kidnappings and torture under Maduro, calling them crimes against humanity and “state terrorism, deployed to bury the will of the people”. She added: “Of course, the risk of going back, perhaps it’s higher, but it’s always worthwhile. And I’ll be back in Venezuela, I have no doubt.”

‘Transition is irreversible’: María Corina Machado says not too late for Maduro’s peaceful handover

Nicolás Maduro’s political downfall is inevitable, the Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has claimed, rejecting claims that the dictator’s demise would plunge Venezuela into a Syria-style civil war. Speaking to journalists in Oslo two days after being awarded the Nobel peace prize, Machado voiced confidence that her country was on the cusp of a new political era amid an intensifying US campaign to unseat Maduro. “Transition is irreversible,” said the conservative pro-democracy activist, who arrived in Norway’s capital on Wednesday having dramatically slipped out of Venezuela by boat after nearly a year living in hiding. Machado told reporters that Maduro and senior members of his regime still had time to negotiate a peaceful handover. “But … Maduro will leave power, whether there is a negotiation or not. We would like it to be through a negotiation,” she added, dismissing fears that a change of regime could plunge Venezuela into violence similar to the civil wars in Libya and Syria or the conflict in Afghanistan. “These [comparisons] are utterly unfounded because the situation [in Venezuela] is completely different. We have … a well-knit society without religious, racial, regional, socio-political divisions,” she told reporters from a small number of outlets including the Guardian. Machado, a 58-year-old former congresswoman from Caracas, has spent almost half of her life battling the Chavista political movement, which Maduro inherited from Hugo Chávez after his death in 2013. In the years after Maduro took power, plummeting oil prices and economic mismanagement and corruption plunged Venezuela into economic chaos, with US sanctions later compounding the crisis. More than eight million citizens fled overseas – an exodus larger than the one generated by Syria’s civil war. In July 2024, Maduro appeared to suffer a landslide defeat in the presidential election, amid widespread anger at his increasingly authoritarian rule and Venezuela’s economic collapse. Detailed voting data released by the opposition and verified by independent experts indicated that Edmundo González, a diplomat who ran in Machado’s place after she was banned, won the vote, although Maduro clung to power after launching a ferocious crackdown. Twenty-four hours after that allegedly stolen vote, during one of her last public appearances before going underground, Machado made an almost identical forecast about Maduro’s fate. “I would say his departure is irreversible,” she told the Guardian at an event Caracas. But 16 months later Maduro remains in power and this week struck a defiant tone, urging supporters to prepare “to smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary”. Since August Donald Trump has ramped up the pressure, putting a $50m bounty on Maduro’s head and ordering a massive military buildup in the Caribbean Sea as well as a series of deadly airstrikes on alleged narco vessels supposedly linked to Venezuela’s government. Earlier this week, US troops commandeered an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea that was carrying tens of millions of dollars worth of Venezuelan oil, a move Machado described as a “very necessary step” to deprive resources from the Maduro regime. Late on Thursday, the US imposed sanctions on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, and on six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The treasury department alleged the vessels “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”. Trump also repeated his threats to launch strikes on targets on the Venezuelan mainland. However, back-channel talks over Maduro’s future are believed to have continued. Maduro and Trump held a rare phone conversation in late November, prompting claims that the US president had given his counterpart an ultimatum to leave power, although the details of their conversation remain a mystery. Reports have emerged that Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, held a secret conversation with Maduro during which the Brazilian offered to meditate the crisis with Trump. Colombia’s foreign minister, Rosa Villavicencio, signalled that her government would be willing to offer Maduro asylum, in another sign of growing regional pressure. Some observers fear Trump’s escalating pressure campaign and Maduro’s apparent unwillingness to resign mean the US may be lurching towards a military intervention on Venezuelan soil, with potentially devastating consequences. Earlier this week, Lula’s chief foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, warned that a US attack on Venezuela could plunge South America into a Vietnam-style conflict. Speaking in Oslo, Machado insisted her movement was preparing for “an orderly and peaceful transition” once Maduro was gone. She said González had invited her to be vice-president if their movement was able to take power. Machado claimed that “the vast majority” of the police and armed forces would follow the new administration’s orders once the political transition began. Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan minister and economist, rejected the “lazy and irresponsible” claims that his country would inevitably be plunged into chaos by Maduro’s departure from power. “Venezuela is politically unified,” said Hausmann, who believed Maduro would only agree to step down if Trump dramatically increased the pressure. “If staying in power means that you may get missiles thrown at you, like [Iranian general Qasem] Soleimani, then you might want to consider seriously whether you want to stay in power,” Hausmann said.