US President Donald Trump confirmed a strike on an area allegedly involved in drug smuggling from Venezuela. He made the announcement while answering questions from journalists at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There was a big explosion in the port area where they load ships with drugs. We blew up all the boats and now we hit this area, the American leader said when asked to comment on the “explosion in Venezuela“. However, he did not provide any details or specify the exact location of this area.
Trump said that his recent conversation with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro did not produce tangible results.
“I spoke with him“, Trump said, explaining in response to a follow-up question that the conversation took place “relatively recently“. “But we have to understand that the conversation did not produce any significant results“, Trump added, again accusing Caracas of smuggling drugs into the United States.
On December 26, in an interview with WABC radio, Trump said that two days earlier the United States had struck “a large plant or facility“ believed to be used for drug smuggling. According to US media, the strike may have been aimed at a facility in Venezuela.
Washington has unfoundedly accused Caracas of not being proactive enough in the fight against drug trafficking. As The New York Times reported in August, Trump signed a classified directive to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels. Significant additional US forces were then deployed to the Caribbean, including a strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. In recent months, the US military has destroyed more than 20 boats off the coast of Latin America under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, killing nearly 100 people. After one of these strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the US operation had killed a fisherman from his country, not a drug dealer.
On December 16, Trump announced that he had ordered the blockade of all sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela. The American leader said that the United States considers the Venezuelan government a “foreign terrorist organization“. American media have repeatedly reported that the United States may soon begin striking drug cartel targets in Venezuela.