Neither the White House nor the United States Department of Defense, renamed the Department of War, have so far confirmed the alleged attack on a “large facility” linked to the alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking network that US President Donald Trump attributed this Monday to US forces in the press conference after the , at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.
Neither the Republican president nor his Administration have provided any details about the location of the target nor have they explained what role said facility would play in the alleged drug trafficking network present in the region. If this operation is confirmed, after weeks of escalating tension between the two governments and the , it would represent the first US ground attack in Venezuela since Washington began its campaign of military operations in the Caribbean.
Trump spoke for the first time about this alleged operation last Friday, in a talk on the radio program that the millionaire John Catsimatidis presents on his station, the WABC from New York. The American president called the space to speak with one of his most faithful followers and, as can be heard in the podcastHe limited himself to saying without providing details or specific references to Venezuela: “They have a large plant, or a large facility, from where the ships leave. Two nights ago we destroyed it.”
This Monday, however, the American magnate expanded on that story when answering questions from journalists, in the conference after the meeting with Netanyahu. There, Trump spoke of “a big explosion” in “the area of the dock where the ships are loaded with drugs” and assured that the United States had gone from attacking the ships to directly hitting that area: “We attacked all the ships and now we attack the area. That area of operations no longer exists,” he stated. Asked who carried out the operation, Trump avoided giving more details: “I know, but I’m not going to say,” he responded when journalists asked him if it had been an action by the US Army or the CIA. When asked to know the location of the attack, he simply added: “It was along the coastline.”
For weeks, Trump had been warning that his Administration would take the step of attacking targets on land after a campaign focused, until now, on the interception and destruction of boats supposedly linked to drug trafficking. An operation that has claimed the lives of more than a hundred people and has led to an intense debate in the US Congress regarding the use of force in this operation. The Government of the United States assures that both Nicolás Maduro and the leaders of his Executive and his Armed Forces are the leaders of the so-called , an organization that Washington has declared terrorist, an assertion that Caracas denies.
Caracas remains silent
Between the alleged operation that Donald Trump has placed on Christmas Eve and his words this Monday, the Venezuelan Government has avoided any public reference to a possible first US attack on its territory. Nor has any private reaction emerged, nor has official or independent information been disseminated that confirms what the US president reported.
A silence that contrasts with the fact that this Monday, Donald Trump assured that: “I spoke with him. Very recently. But not much came of it,” said the US president, who did not specify whether the conversation took place before or after the alleged operation against Venezuelan drug trafficking. He also did not detail the content of the call or whether the military and diplomatic pressure that the United States maintains on the Venezuelan government was addressed.
Also this Tuesday at dawn there have been no allusions to the alleged attack or the telephone conversation. In a visit to an agro-productive commune in Caracas, broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión, Nicolás Maduro limited himself to saying that food exports will be “the new source of national wealth for foreign currency” for Venezuela. “We have to start producing pure food, free of chemicals that make us sick, and 100% organic because, in addition, the world is demanding organic food,” said the Chavista leader, certain that “the entire world is going to thank us and they are going to take it out of our hands, and it is going to be the new source of national wealth for foreign currency,” he said.
Oil is Venezuela’s main source of income, but in recent weeks this sector has been involved in a crisis due to Trump’s announcement of sanctions for those entering and leaving the South American country, seizing two ships. Maduro, who calls these actions “piracy,” said last week that the current context represents a “test” for the country to free itself from oil and become “stronger as an economy.”
What has remained alive is the climate of tension between Washington and Caracas. Without going any further, Nicolás Maduro defended this Sunday that the Venezuelan Armed Forces are “more prepared than ever” after “27 weeks threatened by Goliath”, in reference to the United States. “Our Military Force is deployed with intelligence, wisdom and strategic patience,” he stated in a speech to the troops, although without mentioning at any time the alleged US attack.
Early this Monday, the Venezuelan Executive did report its own operation against drug trafficking. The authorities announced the destruction of an aircraft allegedly used for these activities in the municipality of Pedro Camejo, in the state of Apure, near the border with Colombia. The Bolivarian National Armed Forces explained that the device was located on an improvised clandestine runway and declared “hostile” within the framework of Operation Bolivarian Shield “Independencia 200.”
New bombing in the Pacific
Meanwhile, the United States Army continues its campaign in the Eastern Pacific against vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking and, according to the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), early this Tuesday morning the alleged vessel was neutralized. The attack, which is part of the operation Southern Spear, It has resulted in the death of two men and in which, according to the message published by the US command on the social network X, “no member of the US military forces was injured.”
The US military command claimed to have intelligence information confirming that “the ship was transiting known drug trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was participating in operations” of this type, although it did not specify if there were more crew members on board or if there were survivors. With this latest bombing, the campaign of attacks in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific against vessels linked, according to Washington, to drug trafficking raises the number of fatalities to 107, in more than twenty military operations carried out in recent months.
