Trump Says US Forces Struck Large Facility in Venezuela; Details Unconfirmed

President Donald Trump has said US forces struck a "big plant, or a big facility" in Venezuela last week, but provided no precise location or further detail, and the White House has not publicly expanded on his remarks.

Trump made the assertion in remarks to Republican donor and supermarket owner John Catsimatidis, saying: "Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard." He later described the target as part of a dock area used to "load the boats up with drugs," saying: "We hit the area."

Speaking after a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president added that US forces had struck "the implementation area… where they implement and that’s no longer around."

The White House has not commented further on the president’s statements. An administration official told CNN that the president was referring to a drug facility in his remarks to Catsimatidis, but reporters and independent outlets have not verified the location, the nature of the facility, or whether a US strike has been carried out.

Video footage posted online on 24 December appears to show an explosion said to have occurred in the industrial zone of the San Francisco municipality in Zulia state. The video and the facility depicted in it have not been independently verified.

Venezuelan authorities have not issued a comment on the incident Mr Trump described, and there have been no independent reports from inside Venezuela corroborating the president’s account.

If confirmed, a US strike or covert action inside Venezuela would represent a significant escalation and would mark the first land strike on Venezuelan territory since the Pentagon began a regional buildup of US strike forces, a posture aimed at interdicting drug traffickers the administration says operate under the direction of the Venezuelan government.

Trump confirmed in October that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela. He explained his decision to reporters in the Oval Office by citing two reasons: migration and drugs. "They have emptied their prisons into the United States of America ... they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border," he said, adding: "And the other thing are drugs."

US military authorities have deployed an extensive maritime posture around Venezuela that the administration describes as a quarantine. Administration officials say this buildup is intended to enforce existing sanctions and disrupt illicit trafficking. Officials have stopped short of formally labeling the operation a blockade, but the measures have been described as the most expansive maritime enforcement action of the Trump presidency.

As part of the posture, administration officials acknowledged that roughly 15,000 personnel are positioned across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Those forces include a carrier strike group, F-35 aircraft and Coast Guard cutters, according to the administration.

Initially presented as a mission to interdict drug trafficking, the deployment’s stated purpose has since also been described as a means to disrupt Venezuela’s oil exports. The enforcement scheme has involved the use of what the administration calls a global "shadow fleet" of oil tankers operating outside of Chevron, which is the single company licensed to export Venezuelan oil under US policy.

Mr Trump has repeatedly warned that US forces are prepared to expand the military campaign by targeting sites inside Venezuela, a move that, by the president’s own account, could require congressional authorization if it were to proceed.

For now, public information about the alleged strike is limited to the president’s comments, the administration official’s characterization to CNN, and an unverified online video. The lack of independent confirmation and official clarification leaves open key questions about what was struck, who carried out the action, and what legal authorities were invoked.

The situation underscores the opacity that can arise when senior officials discuss sensitive military or covert actions in public settings. In this case, those statements have generated international attention and raised immediate questions about escalation, verification and the broader objectives of the US posture around Venezuela.

Key Topics

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