(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump has claimed that the US had “knocked out” a “big facility” as part of the US campaign targeting alleged drug boats in Latin America and against Venezuela.
CNN later reported on Monday that the CIA conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela, which, if true, would mark a major US escalation against the country. So far, the Venezuelan government hasn’t confirmed the claims.
Trump first made the comments in an interview on WABC radio on Friday when discussing the US operations against alleged drug boats in the region. “And we just knocked out, I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard,” he said.
The president was asked by a reporter on Monday about the comments and whether the alleged attack was conducted by the US military. “Well, it doesn’t matter, but there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said, describing the target as an “implementation area” that’s no longer around.
Unnamed US officials speaking to The New York Times claimed that in the WABC interview, Trump was referencing a “drug facility in Venezuela” that they said was “eliminated.” Sources speaking to CNN said the facility was allegedly used by the gang Tren de Aragua and that there were no casualties because no one was present at the time of the attack.
Trump claimed the attack occurred on December 24, the same day there was an explosion at a warehouse in Venezuela’s northwestern state of Zulia. The company that owns the warehouse, Primazol, which specializes in chemical supplies for livestock feed and other purposes, said in a statement that it rejected unspecified allegations about the incident that were circulating on social media, though it’s unclear if it was referencing claims that the blast may have been caused by a US attack.
A major part of the US aggression against Venezuela has been a psychological campaign aimed at scaring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, involving leaks to the media about US plans to bomb the country.
Back in October, Trump said that he authorized covert CIA activity inside Venezuela, and the US spy agency had previously conducted cyberattacks in the country during his first administration.
Any US attack on Venezuela would be illegal under the Constitution, which requires congressional authorization to launch a war. The Trump administration has been clear that its goal in its campaign against Venezuela is the ouster of Maduro, while using false claims that his government is a “cartel” as a pretext.
The US has been enforcing a naval blockade on Venezuela, which so far has involved the seizure of two tankers, a step that’s traditionally considered an act of war and has been strongly denounced by UN experts as illegal aggression.
“There is no right to enforce unilateral sanctions through an armed blockade,” four UN human rights experts said last week. “The illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region.”
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
