VENEZUELA’S President Nicolas Maduro rejected a “slave’s peace” for his country with the United States as he addressed a huge rally in Caracas on Monday.

Addressing the rally outside the Miraflores Palace, President Maduro said his country wanted peace, but only a peace “with sovereignty, equality and freedom.”

“We do not want a slave’s peace, nor the peace of colonies! Colony, never! Slaves, never!” he said.

Washington is accused of a barely concealed attempt at forcing regime change in Venezuela.

In a November 21 phone conversation between President Donald Trump and President Maduro, the Reuters news agency reported sources saying Mr Trump told President Maduro “he had a week to leave Venezuela for the destination of his choice alongside his family members,” a deadline that expired on November 28.

Reuters claims that President Maduro expressed a willingness to leave the country “provided he and his family members had full legal amnesty, including the removal of all US sanctions against 100 Venezuelan officials.”

The US president reportedly refused Mr Maduro’s alleged terms.

The US has deployed a huge armada in the Caribbean Sea. Since September, US forces have carried out at least 21 air attacks in the international waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean against what it describes, again without evidence, as drug boats, killing at least 83 people.

The White House said on Monday that a US admiral acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in one of the attacks.

Lawmakers from both sides of Congress have announced there will be a review of the US military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The lawmakers cited a Washington Post report that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth acted outside his authority by issuing a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat.

Vice-Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who Ms Leavitt claimed ordered the second strike, is expected to provide a classified briefing on Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

Yesterday Leeds East MP Richard Burgon asked in Parliament about reports of British personnel on US ships in the Caribbean, and asked for assurances that Britain would not be involved in any US attack. The government said Britain “is not involved in these operations” and expected all countries to comply with international law.