News Beat
US bombs Venezuela in huge explosion at dock where drugs are loaded, Trump says as he piles pressure on Maduro
DONALD Trump has announced his military have “hit” a Venezuelan dock area, where drugs were allegedly being loaded onto boats.
The American president made the comments at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday.
While welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Florida property, The Don told media: “We hit all the boats”.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said.
“They load the boats up with drugs.
We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area,” he added.
Trump had hinted at the strike earlier in the day, as he continues his pressure campaign against the South American nation.
His first comments came from a surprise radio interview on Friday with host John Catsimatidis.
After ringing the show, the president discussed U.S. strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
“I dont know if you read or saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the … where the ships come from,” Trump said.
“Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.”
He added no additional information during the interview.
In the 29 known targeted strikes, at least 105 people have been killed since September.
Historically, announcements have come from either Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or one of the U.S. military’s social media accounts on social media platform X.
However, neither have posted any notice of any strike on a facility, and the Pentagon has referred all questions on the matter to the White House.
Venezuela’s government has yet to respond to Trump’s claims.
This comes after months of The Don hinting he would order land strikes on Venezuela – and possibly elsewhere – while also saying the US would escalate action from striking boats to striking on land.
In October, he confirmed he had authorised a covert CIA operation in Venezuela.
The agency has yet to back Trump’s claims.
To date, Trump’s troops have sent warships, built up military forces in the region, seized two oil tankers and pursued a third.
The White House says it is in armed conflict with drug cartels and is seeking to stem the flow of illicit substances into the US, as a part of Trump’s ongoing “war on drugs”.
Part of his campaign against the South American nation include claims that Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro is at the head of the major cartels.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and continuously insisted the true motivation behind the military operations is to force him from power.
Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles recently told Vanity Fair that the president “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro cries uncle”.
