President Donald Trump said the US had “destroyed” a “massive facility”. Rumors of a U.S. attack on Venezuela have not been confirmed.
President Trump has ‘no problem’ informing Congress of Venezuela attack
President Donald Trump said he has “no problem” informing Congress of any future attacks regarding Venezuela.
President Donald Trump said the United States had “destroyed” the facility on Dec. 24, leaving unanswered questions about whether the United States had launched its first ground attack in Venezuela, which Trump has threatened to attack for months.
“They have big factories, big facilities where the ships come from. We defeated that two nights ago,” Trump said in a Dec. 26 interview on WABC. President Trump did not elaborate on the location of the facility.
The attack on Venezuelan territory would constitute a major escalation in President Trump’s ongoing pressure campaign to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The Pentagon contacted USA TODAY with the White House, which did not immediately return a request for comment. The Venezuelan government has not officially commented.
Trump’s comments sparked rumors after local news reports and a video about X circulated that an explosion occurred in an industrial area in the northwestern Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. Chemicals manufacturer Primazol said in an official statement that a fire broke out at a warehouse it owns in the region in the early hours of December 24, and said in a later statement that it “categorically denies” the rumors on social media.
In the interview, Trump also touted his administration’s dozens of attacks on Venezuelan ships suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 100 people. The Coast Guard also seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela and is tracking a third tanker that refused to board the ship.
Since the boat attack campaign began in September, President Trump has regularly threatened to attack land-based targets as part of a broader effort to unseat Maduro. Legal experts say the boat strike was illegal and that Venezuela is not a major source of the deadly drug, despite the Trump administration’s claims.
