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Former President Donald Trump has claimed that American military assets struck a "major facility" in the South American country in recent days. However, the former president offered no details on the exact nature or location of the strike, and officials have issued no further comment from his team.
"US forces just destroyed – I'm not sure if you read – they have a major complex, where the ships depart from. Two nights ago, we destroyed it. So we struck them very hard," Trump reportedly told GOP supporter and businessman John Catsimatidis in a recent interview.
If a American military action were to be confirmed, it would mark the first attack on Venezuelan soil since the US Department of Defense initiated a expansion of American military presence in the region to halt narco-trafficking operations that the former administration asserts operate under the direction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
This original objective of the force deployment has since morphed into a blockade aimed at stopping the country's crude oil shipments.
Trump has for some time stated that US forces are ready to escalate the operations by attacking objectives inside Venezuela, a tactic that would in theory require legislative authorization.
Online video posted on social media on 24 December purportedly showed an blast allegedly from an industrial area in Zulia state. But, the video or the site in question has not been independently verified.
An official from Trump's team reportedly told a news network that the president was describing a narco-trafficking site in his remarks.
The Venezuelan government has remained silent on the event the former president described. Additionally, there have been no corroborating news from within the country concerning it.
The buildup of US military in the region – a stance some have termed a sea blockade – constitutes the broadest maritime enforcement action of the Trump era.
Officials have stopped short from labeling the action as a full blockade, but have acknowledged that approximately 15,000 service members are deployed across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, including a aircraft carrier group, F-35 aircraft, and law enforcement vessels to enforce current economic sanctions.
A digital marketing strategist with over a decade of experience in content creation and SEO optimization for Swedish audiences.
Tyler Leon