MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US conducts first ground-target strike in Venezuela as Operation Southern Spear escalates

“Nothing comes of it,” said Trump about his talks with Maduro

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that the United States has launched its first strike against a land-based target in Venezuela, marking a significant escalation in the administration's “anti-narco-terrorism” campaign.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump revealed that a “major facility” on the Venezuelan coast used for drug distribution was destroyed last week.

While the President declined to name the specific agency responsible, CNN and other defense sources indicated the attack was performed through a CIA drone. The operation targeted a remote dock facility allegedly utilized by the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store and load narcotics onto vessels for international shipment.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump stated. “So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area —it’s the implementation area... and that is no longer around.” No casualties were reported since the facility -described only as a “remote dock” along the Venezuelan shore- was empty at the time of the strike.

The strike was the latest and most aggressive move in Operation Southern Spear, a massive military buildup in the Caribbean that has reached its highest troop levels since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The operation, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group, currently includes approximately 15,000 personnel, resulting in at least 30 vessels suspected of drug trafficking sunk or seized, with over 100 suspects dying. The move also includes blocking all Venezuelan oil shipments to Iran and China.

The Venezuelan regime of President Nicolás Maduro has vehemently denied any link to drug trafficking, dubbing the US actions as “extrajudicial executions” and “acts of piracy.”

Foreign Minister Yván Gil accused Washington of “flagrant violations of international law ... committed in the Caribbean,” consisting of ”attacks against vessels and extrajudicial executions, and the unlawful acts of piracy carried out by the United States government” to seize the nation's oil reserves.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem pointed out that targeting the tankers sent “a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people.”

The Maduro administration has filed a formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council. Domestic observers have noted that the strikes worsened the already strained living conditions and food prices near coastal refineries.