New Details Emerge on Venezuela Port Attack

President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed reports of a United States drone attack on a Venezuelan port last week, telling reporters the target was a loading area for drugs.

On Monday, CNN reported the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike on a Venezuelan port earlier in December, the first known U.S. attack inside the country, as Trump’s military and economic pressure campaign appears to intensify.

CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported the attack “targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for shipping.”

The report added there were no casualties, since “no one was present at the facility at the time it was struck.”

Trump himself appeared to acknowledge the attack in a radio interview last week, saying on Friday that the United States had struck a “big facility where ships come from.”

“Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard,” he said.

On Monday, he gave more details on the operation to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “They load the boats up with drugs. So, 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.”

Trump has said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered” when asked if he wishes for regime change in Venezuela.

Trump told reporters on Monday that he had spoken with Maduro “pretty recently,” while adding, “but nothing much comes of it.”

The Trump administration has pressured the Maduro regime with a blockade on its oil trade, as well as conducting strikes on vessels in the Caribbean operated by alleged Venezuelan narco-terrorists.