At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were seen in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas amid Donald Trump‘s escalating threats against its leader Nicolas Maduro.
Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke were being heard and seen in Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, witnesses told Reuters. It is not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
CNN reported the blasts began at 1:50am local time. The southern area of the city, which is near a major military base, has been without electricity.
Trump has repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela, amid efforts to pressure Maduro to leave office, including expanded sanctions and a ramped-up US military presence in the region.
More than two dozen US strikes have taken place on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea in recent months.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Pentagon and US Southern Command for comment.
On Christmas Eve, multiple sources said the CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela on a port facility believed to have been storing drugs bound for America.
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela
Pedestrians run after explosions were heard in Caracas
Trump confirmed the Christmas Eve strike on Monday, days after he casually discussed in a radio interview the attack on a facility ‘where the ship comes from.’
The strike, which took place on a port dock authorities believe was the home base of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months, signaled a further escalation of tensions between the two countries.
Multiple sources have now told CNN that the drone strike was carried out by the CIA, after Trump refused to weigh in on the theory.
Asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said: ‘I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was.’
But Trump has previously said that he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.
Sources said the strike took place on a remote dock on the coast of Venezuela believed to used by the Tren de Aragua gang to stockpile and transfer drugs.
The CIA received intelligence support from US Special Operations Forces. No one was killed and there was nobody at the facility when the attack took place.
It is part of an escalating effort to target what the Trump administration says are boats smuggling drugs bound for the United States.
Multiple explosions have been reported in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas amid Donald Trump’s escalating threats against its leader Nicolas Maduro (pictured)
Trump has repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela, amid efforts to pressure Maduro to leave office, including expanded sanctions and a ramped-up US military presence in the region
The CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela that Donald Trump casually confirmed in a radio interview last week in a further escalation of tensions between the two countries
It moves closer to shore strikes that so far have been carried out by the military in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Speaking on WABC on December 26, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela.
‘I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the – where the ships come from,’ the President said during a call-in with radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who was filling in for Sid Rosenberg.
‘Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard,’ Trump confirmed.
The President said since late November that the US is shifting away from maritime attacks on drug boats and will ‘soon’ be conducting land strikes in Venezuela.
Starting on September 2, 2025, the Department of War has been conducting strikes against suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and Atlantic.
The operations have killed more than 105 people and are aimed at trafficking routes the US says are to blame for a huge spike in overdose deaths.
The US Southern Command carried out its latest ‘lethal strike’ on Monday, killing two alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ in international waters.
But Trump has said that land targets are ‘much easier’ and has hinted at the shift with a series of comments warning ‘land strikes will start very soon’ and ‘soon we will be starting the same program on land.’
He has also warned Maduro it would be ‘smart’ to step down, but has not gone as far as to confirm that the US military operations are to force regime change.
This is a developing news story.
