WASHINGTON, December 30. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump confirmed that a strike had been delivered on a site allegedly used for drug trafficking from Venezuela.
"A major explosion [has taken place] in the dock area where they are loading boats up with drugs. So we blew up all the boats and now we hit the area," the US leader said when asked to comment on reports of an explosion in Venezuela.
At the same time, he gave no further details and did not elaborate on the exact location of the targeted site.
On December 26, Trump said in an interview to the WABC radio station that two days ago, US forces had struck ‘a big plant, or a big facility’ allegedly used for drug smuggling. According to US media reports, it is possible that the strike targeted a facility on Venezuela’s territory.
Washington has baselessly accused the Venezuelan government of not doing enough to combat drug smuggling. According to the New York Times newspaper, Trump has allowed the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
In August, The New York Times reported that US President Donald Trump had signed a classified directive to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels.
Significant additional US military units were deployed to the Caribbean Sea region, including a group of ships headed by the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford. Over recent months, under the pretext of fighting drug smuggling, the US army destroyed more than 20 boats off the coast of Latin America, resulting in nearly 100 casualties. Colombian President Gustavo Petro reported that one of the strikes had killed a Colombian fisherman, not a drug smuggler.
On December 16, the American president announced that he had given instructions to stop all sanctioned tankers sailing to or from Venezuela. Trump said the US considers the government in Caracas a "foreign terrorist organization." The US media reported on several occasions that the United States was about to begin striking drug cartel facilities in Venezuela.