CNN is reporting the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a drone strike on a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast. The US Government is claiming, without producing evidence, the facility was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for shipping.
Sources told CNN no one was at the facility at the time of the drone strike, and there were no casualties.
Two sources told CNN that US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the drone operation. But Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for US Special Operations Command, denied that claim.
The US drone strike inside Venezuela is the latest in yet another significant escalation in the aggressive US military campaign against the Latin American country.
Trump Threatens Venezuela
Trump has called Venezuela a “foreign terrorist organization,” for which he produced no evidence. Meanwhile, he has ordered a heavy US military buildup in the region.
Trump has also publicly threatened to carry out strikes inside Venezuela and has previously stated he had dispatched the CIA to Venezuela for that purpose.
In just the last few months, the US military has launched air strikes on more than 30 vessels in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing over 90 people.
The US had initially described the aggressive military strikes on the vessels as a counter-narcotics campaign, an attempt to prevent the distribution of cocaine, for which little or no evidence has been produced to backup the claim.
Trump’s Authorization
Instead, that language, without much evidence, is most probably meant to manufacture a justification for the military and covert aggression towards Venezuela.
Trump has also ordered the blockade and seizure of oil tankers going to or leaving Venezuela.
In an unguarded interview, Trump’s chief of staff told Vanity Fair the real goal is to effect a change of the Venezuelan government and have President Nicolás Maduro step down.
Trump has not received congressional authorization, as required by US law, to conduct any act of war against Venezuela and it remains unclear the US Government’s true motivations for pressuring for a regime change in Venezuela.
Further reading:
CNN: CIA carried out drone strike on port facility on Venezuelan coast
Vanity Fair: Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term (Part 1 of 2)