Overview
- Journalists reported multiple blasts and aircraft sounds around 2 a.m. in Caracas, with power cut in the city’s south near a major military base and AP citing at least seven explosions.
- President Trump has claimed U.S. forces destroyed a Venezuelan docking area used by traffickers, a strike that Maduro has neither confirmed nor denied.
- Washington has deployed a flotilla to the Caribbean and tightened oil sanctions, including the seizure of at least two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude.
- The Trump administration says its Caribbean strikes have caused 35 deaths and 115 injuries, figures not independently verified in the reports cited.
- In a New Year interview, Maduro said he is ready to discuss drug control and oil investment with the U.S., while announcing the release of 88 detainees a week after 99 others were freed.