ReutersDonald Trump has said that the US carried out a strike on a “dock area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
The US president said there had been a “major explosion” where “they load the boats up with drugs” – but did not give more details or the dock’s location. Venezuela’s government is yet to respond.
The explosion was caused by a drone strike carried out by the CIA, according to CNN and the New York Times, which cited sources close to the matter. If confirmed, it would be the first known US operation inside Venezuela.
Trump has previously threatened land strikes in Venezuela, as well as authorising covert CIA action, as part of a pressure campaign on President Nicolás Maduro.
There has been no official comment on Trump’s remarks from Venezuela and – while there has been speculation on social media – there are no reports of any strikes in Venezuelan state-run media.
Reporters asked Trump on Monday if the CIA had carried out the attack, and he said: “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was.”
This is the second time Trump has mentioned the explosion. In a radio interview last week, he described a US operation against a “big facility”, but provided limited details.
A US strike on land would constitute a marked escalation in the pressure the Trump administration has put on Maduro, whom the US has accused of leading a “narco-terrorist” organisation – an accusation the Venezuelan president has denied.
Since September, the US has launched 30 strikes on what it says are drug-smuggling boats, targeting vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and killing more than 100 people.
The most recent strike was on Monday, with US Southern Command saying in a social media post that two “narco-terrorists” were killed in a “lethal kinetic strike” in the eastern Pacific.
However, the US has provided no evidence to back up its allegations that the boats it struck were carrying drugs.
With the exception of two survivors – a Colombian and an Ecuadorean national – none of the identities of those on board have been made public.
Speaking on Monday, Trump provided little detail about the alleged strike on land, but seemed to signal that a new phase in the pressure campaign on Venezuela had been reached.
“We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area… it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement, and that is no longer around,” he said without clarifying which area he was referring to.
The Pentagon referred questions from BBC News to the White House. The White House has yet to comment.
When the US has previously carried out strikes on alleged drug boats – including Monday’s – the Pentagon has published images and videos on social media to confirm the strikes. So far, no images of the dock incident have been shared.
The Trump administration has described strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as attacks against terrorists attempting to bring fentanyl and cocaine to the US.
However, fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and reaches the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border.
Counter-narcotic experts have also pointed out that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking.
It mainly acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.
As well as striking vessels it suspects of transporting drugs, Washington has also deployed a large military force to the Caribbean and ordered a naval blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil revenues to fund drug-related crime and designated the Maduro government as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” (FTO).
In recent weeks, US forces seized two oil tankers and pursued a third one.
The Maduro government, which has long accused the US of wanting to steal the South American country’s oil riches – Venezuela has the world’s biggest proven reserves – called the seizures “piracy”.
Nicolás Maduro has also accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try to depose him.
When Trump was asked last week whether the goal of the seizures was to force Maduro from power, the US president responded: “Well, I think it probably would… That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it’d be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re gonna find out.”
