Donald Trump said the United States carried out a strike on a “dock area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
The US president said there was a “major explosion” in which “they loaded the boats with drugs”, but did not give further details or the location of the dock. The Venezuelan government has not yet responded.
The explosion was caused by a drone strike carried out by the CIA, according to CNN and the New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter. If confirmed, it would be the first known U.S. operation in Venezuela.
Trump has already threatened to launch ground strikes in Venezuela and authorize covert CIA action, as part of a pressure campaign on President Nicolás Maduro.
There has been no official comment on Trump’s remarks from Venezuela and – although there has been speculation on social media – no strikes have been reported in Venezuelan state media.
On Monday, reporters asked Trump whether the CIA carried out the attack. He said, “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was.”
This is the second time Trump has mentioned the explosion. In a radio interview last week, he described a U.S. operation against a “large installation” but provided few details.
A U.S. ground strike would constitute a marked escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure on Maduro, whom the United States has accused of leading a “narcoterrorist” organization – an accusation the Venezuelan president has denied.
Since September, the United States has launched 30 strikes against what it considers drug smuggling boats, targeting ships in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing more than 100 people.
The most recent strike took place on Monday, with the US Southern Command saying in a social media post that two “narcoterrorists” had been killed in a “deadly kinetic strike” in the Eastern Pacific.
However, the United States has provided no evidence to support its claims that the boats it struck were carrying drugs.
With the exception of two survivors, a Colombian and an Ecuadorian, none of those on board have been made public.
Speaking on Monday, Trump provided few details about the alleged ground strike but appeared to signal that a new phase in the pressure campaign on Venezuela had been reached.
“We’ve hit all the boats, and now we’re hitting the area…that’s the implementation area. That’s where they’re implementing, and that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said without specifying which area he was referring to.
The Pentagon referred questions from BBC News to the White House. The White House has not yet commented.
When the United States has previously carried out strikes against suspected drug boats – including Monday’s – the Pentagon has released images and videos on social media to confirm the strikes. So far, no images of the dock incident have been shared.
The Trump administration has described strikes on ships in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as attacks on terrorists trying to smuggle fentanyl and cocaine into the United States.
However, fentanyl is produced primarily in Mexico and reaches the United States almost exclusively by land through its southern border.
Counter-narcotics experts have also pointed out that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the global drug trade.
It mainly acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.
ReutersIn addition to striking ships suspected of transporting drugs, Washington has also deployed a significant military force to the Caribbean and ordered a naval blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil revenues to finance drug crime and designated the Maduro government a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO).
In recent weeks, U.S. forces have seized two oil tankers and pursued a third.
The Maduro government, which has long accused the United States of trying to steal the South American country’s oil wealth – Venezuela has the world’s largest proven reserves – has called the seizures “piracy”.
Nicolás Maduro also accused the United States of using its “war on drugs” as a pretext to try to impeach him.
When Trump was asked last week whether the goal of the seizures was to force Maduro from power, the US president replied: “Well, I think it probably would be… It’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart of him to do it. But again, we’ll find out.”
